Guardian Mage
by Rave Rose of Twilight
Summary: Through some combination of my terrible laptop and my word processor refusing to save or close out at random moments in time, I am unable to update any of my stories at this time. I promise. I will get a better laptop and I will update my stories. Do not worry. I do thank you, my loyal readers, for your support.
1. The Letter

**Guardian Mage**

**Written By: Rave Rose of Twilight**

**Warning: I do not own Harry Potter or anything from it. *Insert snipy one-liner here***

Chapter One: The Letter

It was late afternoon and the sun was beginning to set for the day in front of several homes lined up on Wexler Drive. It's location, Little Vanderbelt, was known to be a community mixed with muggles and wizards. People all around were mowing their lawns, going to work, or going out shopping. A young boy was peddling down the street, tossing newspapers left and right. The birds were singing and the smell of flowers hung in the air.

A large owl swooped down from above, a sight many of the muggles had grown used to over their many years living here. Clutched in the talons of the owl was a letter.

**Mr. J. Kingsford**

**The Third Bedroom**

**62 Wexler Drive**

**Little Vanderbelt**

**Surrey**

As the owl glided around the house, he could spot several people walking around on the inside. One of whom was a young girl, no older than 4, playing with her dolls and stuffed animals with an empty tea set sitting on a small pink plastic table. Her room screamed 'little girl'. She wore a frilly pink dress that tapered down to mid-calf. Her soft blond hair shone like the sun contrasting her jet black eyes that spoke of innocence and purity.

As the owl continued to search for the letter's original recipient, he spotted a much older woman who looked incredibly similar to the little girl from before. She wore a red blouse and black skirt that reached her knees. In her hand was a wand that she used to manipulate the objects in the rather modern kitchen. With a simple wave, the broom sitting near the corner of the room began to tidy up a bit as she continued to cook lunch for her children. For an instant, the owl could have sworn he saw her looking at him from the corner of his eye, but ignored it.

Just as the owl was about to give up his search, he spotted a young man, age 11, running up the driveway covered in sweat. Despite his age, the shape he was in gave him a slightly older appearance. He wore a gray shirt and matching shorts. His tennis shoes looked heavily worn, but were holding stong somehow. His black hair was cut rather short, but was slightly spiked despite the amount of sweat dripping from his brow. Even his eyes, a deep shade of black, spoke of determination and happiness. The young boy looked up at the owl and smiled before whistling slightly. The owl dove toward him at a sedated pace before landing on his shoulder and releasing the letter into its intended owner's possession. With a smile, the boy pet the owl before it took off, back to its master.

Taking the letter and placing it in his pocket, the young boy walked inside, shut the door, and removed his shoes before stepping into the kitchen as the smell of food wafted through his nose. "Hey, Mom." Walking up to the older blond woman, he leaned up and kissed her on the cheek. "Lunch smells great."

The woman smiles kindly before kissing his forehead. "It will be ready soon, Joshua. Give it a moment." As she flicked her wand at a wooden spoon, making it stir what was in the full pot sitting on the stove, she tapped on the wall twice. "Erica, sweety! Joshua's back from his workout and dinner's almost ready!"

Before he could get ready, tiny footsteps were his only warning before a large weight hit him in the stomach. Looking down, he could see the mop of blond hair that belonged to his sister, Erica. Letting go of him, she backed up before holding her nose tightly.

"Eeewwww! You stinky, big brother," she said while continuing to hold her nose. Joshua chuckled to himself before ruffling his little sister's hair.

"That's what happens when men go for a run in the middle of summer, Erica. We get sweaty and stink 'till we take a shower, which I was going to do before you glomped onto me." Erica looked up at him with a toothy grin before sticking her tongue out and running back to her room.

About half an hour later, Joshua walked out of the bathroom wearing a lightweight brown t-shirt tucked into a pair of green cargo pants and a pair of heavy-duty boots with thick rubber soles. The letter from the owl was now sitting on the side of his table placement as his family ate their grilled sausage and mashed potatoes. After every bite, he would look at it nervously, a small tick in his right eye developing the more he looked at it.

His mother noticed this and was quickly getting more and more irritated. When he finally finished his meal, she slammed her hands against the table before leveling a maternal 'death glare' at him, causing him to flinch slightly. "Just open it already, Joshua."

"But what if I wasn't accepted," he mumbled under his breath. She shook her head at him.

"You'll never know until you open it and read," she said with authority.

Taking a deep breath, he picked up the letter and flipped it to the back where there was a wax seal with a large 'H' in the middle surrounded by a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake. This was a letter from Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. While it was customary to enter his first year at the age of 11, his birthday was a few months after classes started.

While this wouldn't have been a big deal, the Ministry of Magic had told them that he wouldn't be able to enroll until this year. Something stupid involving rules and regulations. His mother told him that 'The Trace', a special magic that activated on a wizard's 11th birthday, would be inactive until near the middle of the school year and that you couldn't enter Hogwarts unless the trace was active. Sounded kinda weird to him, but who was he to judge?

Taking a deep breath, Joshua removed the seal and opened the letter, reading it outloud as he read to himself.

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwamp, International Confed. of Wizards)_

Dear Mr. Kingsford

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

_Deputy Headmistress_

Joshua's eyes were wide and full of joy. His sister and mother also expressed their own form of joy and pride, though theirs were clearly more veiled than his own.

Moving the chair out from behind him, he began to read and reread the letter to make sure it was real. No signs of forgery. No tampering. It's real.

"This is...this is unbelievable! I'm in! I'm finally in," he shouted at the top of his lungs. "Eat that, Ministy of Magic! I'm finally in and you can sit and spin for all I care! BOOYA!"

"My son," his mother said in a calm and pleasant voice. "Finally ready to become a wizard just like his mom. You may have my magic, but you have your father's looks. I just know you'll be a lady killer just like your old man."

Erica jumped in joy, talking about how her brother was going to play magic with her when he got home and other such childish talk. While she herself had no ounce of magic in her, she was happy knowing that she had such an awesome brother.

Pulling a piece of paper from behind the letter, he spotted the list that Professor Minerva spoke about.

Uniform

First-year students will require:

Three sets of plain work robes (black)

One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags.

Course Books

All students should have a copy of the following:

_The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) _by Miranda Goshawk

_A History of Magic _by Bathilda Bagshot

_Magical Theory_ by Adalbert Waffling

_A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration _by Emeric Switch

_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ by Phyllida Spore

_Magical Drafts and Potions _by Arsenius Jigger

_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them _by Newt Scamander

_The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_ by Quentin Trimble

Other Equipment

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set of glass or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad.

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS!

Joshua's eyes widened slightly at the rather large and unique list before shaking his head. That was gonna be one hell of a trip just to get everything on the list, not to mention how much it would cost to buy it. "Mom," he said hesitantly. "How are we going to buy everything on the list? I doubt you could even find half of this in Great Brittain much less London."

His mother had a smirk on her face. "Well, I think it's about time for your first trip to Diagon Alley in London. It's a magical community where wizards and witches go to buy school supplies or supplies for work. Unfortunately, it's far too late to go tonight, so we'll go at first light tomorrow morning. The train to London should make our trip shorter than driving from here to there."

Joshua nodded before releasing a rather tired yawn and heading to bed. He was tired, but excited at the same time. He didn't want to fall asleep, but something about today exhausted him both mentally and physically and he couldn't stay awake after his head hit the pillow.

His mother stayed up just a bit longer, writing back the reply to his acceptance letter before sending it off with her pet cat, Lilith. As it looked like the cat was going to jump from the window sill, it disappeared in a small puff of smoke as she walked to the master bedroom and fell asleep, already preparing for a new day to dawn.

The next day, the trio bought their tickets, boarded the train, and made their way to London. It was a fairly dull trip, but one easily made. As soon as they walked up to a dimly lit shop, the sign above them changed slightly to read 'The Leaky Cauldron'. His mother sighed in contentment as she opened the door and walked in, followed closely by her two children. Joshua looked around and watched the people inside from the corner of his eye. They were dressed in robes and pointy hats while drinking their own particular drinks.

That was when his gut began to scream at him. From the corner of his eye, he could see a shivering man wearing a turban, of all things. He seemed to be whispering to himself while looking around like a paranoid soldier who saw more blood spilled than he ever wanted to in his life. Joshua's muscles tensed as they passed him by and his mother must have noticed because she looked at him worriedly. Something about him...terrified him more than anything he'd ever seen in his life.

Ignoring the man, the trio soon came upon a brick wall while their mother drew her wand. Looking back at Joshua, she smirked at him before saying, "Pay attention, Josh. It will be your turn to do this next year." Tapping a series of bricks with her wand, the two children looked in awe as the bricks withdrew and moved, parting like a sea of red before revealing a grand road surrounded by buildings on all sides. "Welcome...to Diagon Alley."

As the various witches and wizards walked past him, he could immediately feel the sheer power this place radiated. It was calming, yet heavy. This must be magic in its rawest state. Not even his mother's magic felt like this. "Our first stop, however, is Gringotts. It's where wizarding families keep their magic money like muggle banks keep muggle money."

Joshua nodded in understanding. She taught him about all kinds of places located in or around Diagon Alley. This included the wizarding bank known as Gringotts which was run by goblins. Goblins were the best at keeping track of money, though some argued that they were too good at their job. The young wizard-to-be held no prejudices concerning magical creatures and people.

As they entered Gringotts, the goblins around them were glancing up at them from atop their pedistals before going back to their duties. When they reached the lead goblin in charge, the woman pulled a key from her pockets before slamming it firmly in front of her, getting the goblin's attention. "We'd like access to Vault 101, if you please."

The goblin looked down before swallowing a lump in his throat. "Of course. I'll have someone take you down. Griphook!"

Griphook was a goblin that looked exactly like the other goblins around them. Following him, they were led to a cart that appeared to lead down into a mineshaft. Before he knew what happened, the cart shot off downward, slipping through spirals and loops. Stalagtites and stalagmites were all that he could see before a stone platform neared the right side of their cart. Once there, they suddenly felt a jolt as the cart stopped on a dime.

Pulling the key from his pocket, Griphook walked toward the vault before inserting the key and turning it full circle. Dust fell from all around the door as it creaked open with an irritating sound. By the time the doors were fully open, Joshua and Erica could only hear ringing while their mother had obviously grown used to it. How one could grow used to a dreadful sound like that was beyond the thought process of anyone, muggle or mage. As the four of them walked into the vault, several things came to light for them.

Their mom was one rich witch.

There was no doubt that they would be able to buy his school supplies now.

Taking a black pouch from her blouse pocket, she placed about 125 gold pieces, 15 silver pieces, and 90 bronze pieces inside before handing it to Joshua. "This should be enough to buy your supplies and then some for the next two years or so. Let's go and get you fitted for your uniforms, shall we?"

After a return ride back and a short walk down the road, the three approached Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. As they approached, they spotted two people walking toward them. One was a rather tall man, built for power and strength. He wore a coat that had more pockets than a swiss army knife had tools. His hair was blacker than midnight and scruffier than a wild dog. His beard matched his hair well. In his hand was a pink umbrella that had an unusual feel around it. Next to him was a young boy, no older than Joshua, with jet black hair that lie flat and straight, a few bangs hanging over his forehead where the faint outline of a lightning-shaped scar could be seen, though just barely.

While he didn't think much about the two, his mother reacted quite differently the moment she spotted the two of them. Her eyes widened and her hand trembled slightly. "Hagrid," she said in a nervous and happy manner.

The giant stopped after hearing his name called out and looked ahead to the blond woman with a giant smile on his face. "Morganna," he called out before walking a lot quicker toward the trio. "It's been bloody ages since I last saw you."

The young boy at his side looked at the woman oddly. "Hagrid," he asked nervously. "Who's this?"

"Ah." Hagrid cleared his throat. "Harry. This is one of my former classmates from Hogwarts before...well, you know, Morganna Kingsford. Morganna. This is Harry Potter." Morganna smiled and nodded her head. "Who're these young ones? Can't possibly be your kids. You're still far to young!"

Joshua chuckled as his mother blushed slightly. "Oh stop. You're making me blush, Hagrid. This is my oldest, Joshua," she said, pointing at the raven-haired boy at her side, "and the little one behind him is his little sister, Erica." Erica, being the child that she is, courtseyed to the two. "Joshua's just received his letter yesterday. Sadly, Erica is a muggle, just like her dad, but she tends to look like me. Joshua's his father's son, but got my magical talent."

Hagrid smiled before nodding, happy that they had found Harry another 'freshman' when it comes to wizardry. A lightbulb seemed to light up over his head. "Where is Felix anyway? Best damned muggle I've ever met, he was, and just as brave as any wizard too."

Morganna's face seemed to fall slightly and her smile dimmed. "Unfortunately, Felix died in the line of duty. He tried to stop a mugger from attacking this poor couple and got shot. They eventually found the man responsible, but I've long since gotten over it."

Hagrid too looked a bit depressed. "Listen, I just got done bringin' Harry and showing him the sights after going to Gringotts and I'm still feelin' a bit ill. If you'd like, we could stop by the Leaky Cauldron and grab a drink. You know, talk about the good ole' days and such."

Morganna looked toward Joshua and Harry to see them talking rather animatedly and her smile brightened. "Of course, Hagrid, but I must insist that I bring Erica along. Lord knows what I'd do if she met any of _those _wizards and I'd hate to find out what Josh would do if he ever found her being talked down to or attacked by one. Believe me when I tell you that there is nobody more overprotective of her than him."

Hagrid thumped his chest with one of his giant fists. "Then Harry's found himself a right good friend. There's no muggle I'd trust to watch over Harry than Felix. Just knowin' Josh's just like him makes me feel a bit better."

Morganna turned to Joshua and Harry and cleared her throat, grabbing their attention. "Joshua, I'm going to be bringing Erica with me and Hagrid as we go catch up a bit. We'll see you both soon."

Joshua nodded before walking into the shop with Harry. The bell hanging above the door rang. The room was well-lit. Not too dark that you couldn't see, but not so bright that it was burning your corneas. All around them were various styles of robes in several different colors. Standing in front of them was Madam Malkin, a squat, smiling witch dressed in mauve robes.

"Hogwarts, dears," she asked, just as Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here – another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."

In the back of the shop stood a young boy with a pale, pointed face standing on a footstool while a second witch, either an assistant or an apprentice, pinned up his long black robe. Madam Malkin had Harry stand on a stool next to him while Joshua waited for one to get done. She slipped a long robe over his head and began to pin it to the proper length.

"Hello," the blond-haired boy said, "Hogwarts too?"

"Yes," said Harry, a slight hesitation in his voice, though only Joshua seemed to pick up on it.

"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," the blond said in a bored drawl. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."

This reminded Harry of his cousin, Dudley. Joshua simply frowned. "Only way you'll 'smuggle' a broom in is through the mail and even that is impossible since brooms have multitudes of enchantments on them that Hogwarts can easily detect. You'd be better off waiting 'till next year to bring one to Hogwarts."

The blond boy scowled as he turned his head toward Joshua. "Have _you _got your own broom," he asked demandingly. The more he spoke, the more Joshua felt like cold cocking the brat.

"No, but my mother has been teaching me using her broom. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll get one for Christmas or my birthday. Doesn't bother me not having one though." The boy sneered.

"Play Quidditch at all," he asked in the same demanding tone.

"No. I've watched plenty of professional matches, but I've never played." Harry was wondering just what Quidditch was as they spoke.

"_I _do – Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"

"No, though I hope I'm in either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. I'll even be happy to be in Hufflepuff, but that's all determined by the Sorting Hat, now isn't it," Joshua said firmly, causing the young blond to frown slightly.

"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been, though if they put me in Hufflepuff, I'd leave, wouldn't you," he asked Harry.

"Mmm," was all Harry could say, wishing he could say something more interesting.

"I say, look at that man," he said suddenly, nodding his head toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there with Morganna at his side and they looked to be laughing a fair bit while Erica was skipping around them while eating an ice cream cone. In Hagrid's hand was a pair of ice cream cones as did Morganna. They pointed to the window, trying to explain that they couldn't come in with the snacks.

"That's Hagrid," Harry answered, pleased to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts."

"Oh. I've heard of him," said the blond boy. "He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"

"No. He's the gamekeeper," Joshua said sharply, loathing the word 'servant' with a passion.

"Exactly. I heard he's sort of a _savage –_ lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."

"I think he's brilliant," Harry said coldly, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"_Do_ you," asked the boy with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"

"They're dead," Harry said shortly. Now the boy had two fewer fans than he started with.

"The woman next to him is my mother and the girl is my sister," Josh said just as briefly.

"Oh, sorry," he said, not even sounding sincere about it. "But they were _our _kind, weren't they?"

"They were a witch and a wizard, if that's what you mean," said Harry.

"My mother's a witch, but my dad was a muggle soldier. Is there something _wrong _with that," Joshua said demandingly, the anger in his eyes radiating enough that his mother, standing outside the window, could tell he was getting angrier the more time he spent around this blond kid.

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you," he asked Harry, glaring openly at Joshua after his declaration. "They're just not the same, they've never been brough up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What're your surnames, anyway?"

Before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool.

"Well I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling blond boy.

Harry was rather quiet as he walked out with his robes. Joshua was cracking his knuckles as he stepped up on the stool while the blond stepped off and left with his robes in hand. "Thanks for that, Madam Malkin. I thought I'd hit him if he didn't shut up and Lord knows I'd have sent him to the hospital if I did."

She smiled at him and nodded curtly. "It was no trouble at all, my dear. I've befriended many muggle-born wizards and many mixed blood wizards to know better than that."

After about fifteen minutes, Joshua walked out of the shop with his robes and hat. The hand clutching the straps of the bag was clenching and unclenching the more he walked. His mother was trying to help calm him down.

"What's up," Hagrid asked, tired of the silence.

"Nothing," Harry lied until they stopped in the middle of the street.

"It wasn't nothing, Harry," Josh said in his defense. "That blond brat back there was talking about muggle-born wizards like being a pure blood is the best damned thing in the world. I was ready to send him to the hospital if he so much as said another foul word about muggle-borns." Hagrid nodded.

"Hey, Hagrid. What's Quidditch?" Hagrid was thrown for a loop when Harry asked that question, but was saved when Josh decided to answer for him.

"You don't need to worry about that now, Harry. I'll explain it to you on the train to Hogwarts." Harry nodded. "What's really bothering Harry was what that blond brat was talking about wizards and witches from Muggle families and how they shouldn't be let into Hogwarts."

"Yer not _from _a Muggle family. If he'd know who yeh _were_ – he's grown up knowing' yer name if his parents are wizarding folk. You saw what everyone in the Leaky Caudron was like when they saw yeh. Anyways, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles – look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"

Harry thought hard about it, but nodded to himself. Turning to Josh, his curiosity was still on Quidditch. "What's the jist of Quidditch? I don't want to know the rules, but just some basic information for now would be fine."

Joshua closed his eyes. "Think about it like this. Soccer is to Muggles, what Quidditch is to wizards. Most every witch and wizard follows Quidditch. It's generally played in the air on broomsticks and there are four different balls. That's all I can tell you without going indepth into the rules and such."

"What are Slytherin and Hufflepuff," Harry asked again.

"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but-"

"I bet I'll be in Hufflepuff," said Harry dejectedly. Joshua snorted.

"Not a chance. The look I saw in your eyes when we spoke to that brat...I'd say you're definitely Gryffindor material."

"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," Hagrid said darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."

"Vol, sorry-" Harry started before seeing the queezy look in Hagrid's features. "You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"

"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.

As time passed by, they bought their books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books of all shapes, sizes, and titles. Even Dudley, Harry admitted to himself, who'd never read anything in his life would have gone wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid and Morganna had to practically drag the two friends away from _Curses and Counter-curses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revengers: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More)_ by Professor Vindictus Viridian.

"I was just trying to find out how to curse Dudley," whined Harry.

"And I wanted a good curse to teach that rotten 'pure blood' prick a lesson the next time he spoke out of ignorance," moaned Josh.

"Not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid from behind the young wizards. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."

"Well, Josh might be able to, but he knows better than to just randomly curse someone who didn't deserve it. Right, Josh?" Morganna's tone deepened and a glare found its way toward her eldest child.

Josh chuckled to himself despite his mother's glare. "Those bullies deserved to get hit with the Eye Fart Curse. They were picking on Erica, trying to steal her lunch money. For the next week, whenever they blinked, you could hear their eyes fart from down the hall."

Hagrid chuckled, though when Morganna glared at him, he grew silent. "That's a nasty curse for someone not even in Hogwarts. Yeh'll definitely be a powerful wizard."

As they continued on their trip, Hagrid had been forced to stop Harry from buying the solid gold cauldron, reminding him firmly that it had to be pewter, but they did pick up a nice set of scales to measure and weigh potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope for each of them. After that, they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for the horrid smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotten cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of basic potion ingredients for Harry and Josh, the two examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-two Galleons each and glittering-black beetle eyes for five Knuts a scoop.

Joshua loved being in the Apothecary the most. So many interesting ingredients, items, and such were often used by medics to cure various magical ailments at St. Mungo's, a hospital that was dedicated to healing various magical ailments and maladies. Despite the stench, which could be easily rectified by a spell or two, he would pay to work at a place like this.

Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid and Morganna checked their list.

"Just yer wand left – oh yeah, an' I still haven't gotten yeh a birthday present." Morganna's eyes widened slightly.

"So it's Harry's birthday today? I didn't know. And here I am having not said anything yet." Turning to Harry, she kissed him on the forehead and smiled kindly at him, enjoying the blush she gave the poor boy. "Happy Birthday, Harry." Joshua chuckled a bit, watching Harry squirm after his mother kissed him.

"You don't have to-," he tried to say before he was interrupted.

"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at – an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'."

Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing while Josh now carried an Elf Owl, who was wide awake and perched upon the young man's shoulder. The owl looked at his surroundings in a slightly paranoid fashion while Joshua pet the top of his head with his left pointer finger.

Harry was stammering his thanks, sounding remarkably like Professor Quirrell while Joshua simply thanked his mother. While Hagrid did find it strange that Josh's owl hadn't flown off yet since most owls crave the freedom of their cages, he didn't pay it much more attention.

"Don' mention it," Hagrid told Harry gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now – only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."

A magic wand... this was what Harry had been truly looking forward to.

The last shop was narrow and shabby, but Hagrid, Morganna, and Joshua knew better than to judge by outward appearances. Peeling golden letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand laid on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.

A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the hairs on the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in this place seemed to tingle with some secret magic.

Joshua too was growing unnerved. The shere amount of magic in this place was close to suffocating. Even trying to allow his magic to course through his body seemed to help, but only a little.

"Good afternoon," called a soft voice. Harry jumped and Joshua spun around to see who was talking. Hagrid must have jumped too because there was a hefty crunch and he quickly got off the spindly chair.

An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like the moons through the gloom of the shop.

"Hello," said Harry awkwardly.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Ollivander," said Joshua politely.

"Ah yes," he said. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you both soon. Harry Potter. Joshua Kingsford." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes, Harry. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."

Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry and Josh. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.

"Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it – it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."

Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.

"And that's where..."

He touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long white finger.

"I'm sorry to say that I sold the wand that did it," he said gently. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands...well, if I'd have know what that wand was going out into the world to do..."

He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid and Morganna.

"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again...Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"

"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid proudly.

"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled," queeried Mr. Ollivander sternly.

"Er – yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though."

"But you don't _use_ them," the old man said sharply.

"Oh, no, sir," Hagrid said quickly, his hand clutching down tightly on the handle of his umbrella.

"And Morganna Kingsford! Such an honor...Elm, fouteen and a quarter inches, sturdy." Morganna nodded, drawing her wand. "Still in pristine condition, just as you'd purchased it. You take care of your wand better than most wizards I know."

"Thank you, sir," she said curtly.

Mr. Ollivander turned to Joshua with a small smile. "You may look like your father, but you certainly do have your mother's talent. Let's see if you can measure up to her, won't we?"

"I am my own wizard, Mr. Ollivander. I prefer to be judged by that which I do, rather than be compared to someone with far more experience than myself." Ollivander chuckled.

"You certainly do take after your father, God rest his soul," spoke the aged wand crafter. "Well now – Mr. Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings from his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"

"Er – well, I'm right-handed," said Harry hesitantly.

"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit, and finally around his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."

Harry took the wand and waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.

"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try-"

Harry tried – but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.

"No, no – here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."

Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.

"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere – I wonder, now – yes, why not – unusual combination – holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."

Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. Hagrid, Joshua, Erica, and Morganna whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well...how curious...how very curious..."

He placed Harry's wand back in the box and wrapped it in brown paper, stull muttering, "Curious...curious..."

"Sorry," Harry said, "but what's curious?"

Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with a pale stare.

"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather – just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother – why, its brother gave you that scar."

Harry swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember...I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter...After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things – terrible, yes, but great."

Harry shivered. He wasn't quite sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much. He paid seven Galleons and stepped back toward Hagrid to watch Joshua get his wand. Joshua held out his right arm, much like Harry, and watched as Mr. Ollivander got the measurements. The old wand maker's nose crinkled up as his mind went to work as several wands went through his mind, but there was one that he tried on several other wizards that had yet to find a home. He walked to the back and grabbed a red box before bringing it to the counter.

"I believe this wand belongs to you, Mr. Kingsford. Reedwood. Thirteen-and-three quarter inches long. Dragon Heartstring core. It's strong, yet flexible." Joshua reached out and grabbed a hold of the handle of the wand. The oppressive feel of the room suddenly lifted and the familiar warmth of his own magic filled his body. Raising the wand above his head, he closed his eyes and jabbed his wand's tip at a vase of dying flowers. Within moments, the flowers seemed to 'rise from the dead' as it were and grow slightly taller and larger.

Mr. Ollivander smiled at the results. "I've had that wand in my shop for close to 1000 years. No wizard or witch that I've come into contact with has ever been able to tame it. Not even Albus Dumbledore himself. What you have in your hand right now is a gift. Your wand tells me that we can expect wonderful things to come from you, Mr. Kingsford. Very wonderful things." Taking the wand from the young boy's hand, he placed it back in the box before wrapping it just as he did Harry's. Joshua placed nine Galleons on the table and walked out of the shop with the rest of their group.

The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry, Hagrid, Joshua, and the others made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Caudron, now empty. Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn't eve notice how much people were gawking at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the snowy owl asleep in its cage on Harry's lap. Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder. Those he had just met and been traveling with were looking at him to make sure he was alright.

"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said.

He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow.

"You alright, Harry," asked Joshua before taking another bite out of his burger. "You're being rather quiet."

Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life – and yet – he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words.

"Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Caudron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander...but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry – I mean, the night my parents died."

Joshua chuckled before swallowing another portion of his burger. "Don't worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. Just be yourself. I know it's hard. You've been singled out by every witch and wizard and that's always hard. But you'll have a great time at Hogwarts. Hell, I'll be sitting right there beside you to help you out, if you ever need it, and I guarantee you that you will."

"Hagrid," spoke Morganna as she watched Harry and Joshua talking. "Do you think you could inform Professor Dumbledore that Harry will be spending the rest of the time until the train arrives at my house? Joshua's been helping Harry out so much that maybe he can get him up-to-date on the wizarding world."

Harry's eyes widened and Hagrid began to laugh. "Better with you than with those blasted Muggles he's been stayin' with. I'll give him the word." Pulling an envelope from his pocket, he handed it to Harry, who was still shocked by the offer Mrs. Kingsford had given him. "This is yer ticket fer Hogwarts," he said. "First o' September – King's Cross – it's all on yer ticket. Send me a letter with yer owl to tell me how yer doin'. She'll know where to find me...See yeh soon, Harry."

The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.


	2. The Journey Begins

**Guardian Mage**

**Written By: Rave Rose of Twilight**

**Warning: I don't own Harry Potter. If I did, I'd be ready for anything and everything that could possibly happen from alien invasions to the zombie apocolypse.**

Chapter Two: The Journey Begins

Living with Joshua and his family this past month...was quite possibly the best thing that had ever happened in his life! He got to watch a real Quidditch match and learned a lot about how the game was played. He even began to read the first few chapters of the books he bought at Flourish and Blotts simply to expand his knowledge. He enjoyed spending time with his best friend and loved the delicious meals his mother cooked. He got to move around outside, meeting the Kingsfords' neighbors, almost half of whom were witches and wizards or Muggles married to witches or wizards. They treated him kindly and respectfully, though occasionally he would get one person to come up to him and ask for an autograph.

Living with them was...humbling contrary to how he was living with the Dursleys. After reading _A History of Magic_, he decided to name his owl Hedwig. When she wasn't traveling between Hagrid and him, she could often be spotted spending time with Josh's owl, Vega. Before falling asleep, Harry could be heard or seen reading his books into the late hours of the night. Every night that passed, he marked off on a calendar until he finally marked off the last day in August. Aparantly, Professor Dumbledore thought it was a good idea for Harry to spend a month to watch and live how a wizarding family lives.

When he asked Erica how it felt to be the only Muggle in the family, she replied, "Well, I think it makes me unique. Big brother and mommy get to do magic all the time, but they don't think less of me because I can't. They think more because I choose to do things the hard way and think I'm better for it!"

To think that a 5-year-old girl was more intelligent than that boy he met at the robe shop was astounding, but then again, when you live like the Kingsford family, you learn to apreciate the little things in life.

Soon, September the first finally arrived and this was going to be the day he finally attended a school with people just like him. With Wizards. As they drove to King's Cross, they made their way to the station until they finally go to their destination. Logically, their platform would be somewhere between 9 and 10, but there was no sign that said 9 and three quarters. He looked up at Mrs. Kingsford, who smiled at him. "You see that wall on Platform 9?" Harry nodded. "There's actually a hole there, a gateway, if you will, covered by several enchantments to hide it from Muggles. After a certain time, the barrier will close and the wall will be solid, meaning that you can't board the train to Hogwarts. That's why we got here so early. So we wouldn't have to worry about being late."

Once she finished explaining it to Harry, she turned her head as she heard something behind her. "- packed with Muggles, of course -" Everyone turned around. The speaker was a rather plump woman talking to four boys, each with flaming red hair. Each of the boys was pushing a trunk like Harry and Josh's in front of them – and they had an _owl_. Vega and Hedwig looked at their masters before looking at a sickly-looking owl. Shaking their heads, they went back to sleep with their heads tucked beneath their wings.

"Now, what's the platform number," she asked the boys.

"Nine and three-quarters," called the young red haired girl that held onto the woman's hand. "Mom, can't I go..."

"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first."

"Watch and learn, boys," said Morganna as she watched the young man prepare to take off.

The oldest of the four boys marched up and took a running start. As he neared the divider between Platforms 9 and 10, a crowd of people came swarming in front of him and, by the time they cleared away, he'd vanished.

"Fred, you next," the plump mother said.

"I'm not Fred. I'm George," said the boy she was speaking to. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you _tell_ I'm George?"

"Sorry, George, dear."

"Only joking, I am Fred," said the boy before taking off, his brother's trunk nipping at his heels.

As the twins disappeared, the final of the four boys was next when the mother noticed Harry, Joshua, and Morganna. "First years at Hogwarts," she said in an obvious, yet kind tone.

Morganna chuckled. "Yes. My son and his friend just got their belongings together last month and Harry's just a smidge nervous." The woman nodded in understanding.

"This is Ron's first year too. All you have to do...is walk straight at it. Don't stop and don't be scared or you'll crash into it," she explained to Harry. "Best to do it at a bit of a run if you're really nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."

"Er – okay," Harry said. He looked at the barrier between the two platforms before slowly pushing his trolley.

The more he pushed, the faster he seemed to go until he was inches from the barrier. In an instant, he felt nothing. Coming to a complete stop and moving off to the side, he waited for a moment before his best friend and Ron came through with their things. There in front of him was a scarlet steam engine waiting next to a platform full of people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words _Platform Nine and Three-Quarters_ on it. He'd done it.

Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every color wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disguntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.

The first few carriages were already packed to the brim with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Harry pushed his cart off down the platform in search of an empty seat. He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."

"Oh, _Neville_," he heard the old woman sigh.

A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.

"Give us a look, Lee, go on."

The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, harry leg.

Harry pressed on through the crowd until he found an empty compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk toward the train door. He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.

"Need a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins that passed through the barrier before him.

"Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"

With their help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.

"Thanks," Harry said, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes.

"What's that," said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.

"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you -"

"He _is_," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.

"What," asked Harry, curious as to where this was going.

"_Harry Potter,_" they chorused together.

"Oh, him," Harry said. "I mean, yes, I am."

The two boys were gawking at him, and Harry felt himself turning red at the attention. Then, to his relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open door.

"Fred? George? Are you there?"

"Coming, Mom."

Harry sat down next to the window, half hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying. Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief when Joshua walked up next to him before hoisting his trunk to the empty compartment next to Harry's by himself.

"You know, Josh, there's got to be something wrong with you," Harry told his half-brother, as he now called him from time to time. "I could hardly lift the trunk up the steps and would still be stuck by the door if it wasn't for the twins' help."

Joshua chuckled. "Maybe you just need to do some strength training." The two laughed it up a bit until he heard his name mentioned by the twins to their mother followed by the scream if a fangirl.

"Oh, Mom, can I go on the train and see him, Mom, oh, please..."

"You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?"

"Asked him. Saw his scar. It's really there – like lightning."

"Poor _dear_. Thank goodness he had that family with him. That young boy he was with was a first year too. At least he has one friend going with him to Hogwarts. Now, maybe, he won't feel so alone."

Fred asked her whether he remembered what You-Know-Who looked like and she got a nasty look on her face before absolutely forbidding them from asking. The train whistle erupted in a high-pitched roar over the voices of the students.

As the train began to leave, Ginny, the sister to the four boys aboard the train ran until she couldn't follow and simply waved them off.

The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest red-headed boy, Ron, if they remembered correctly, came in. "Anyone sitting there," he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."

Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and Josh before quickly looking out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.

"Hey, Ron."

The twins were back.

"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train – Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

"Right," Ron mumbled under his breath.

"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."

"Bye," said Ron, Harry, and Joshua. The twins shut the compartment door and left.

"Are you really Harry Potter," Ron blurted out.

Harry nodded.

"Oh – well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got – you know..." pointing at Harry's forehead.

Harry nodded, pulling back his bangs to show the scar. Ron stared.

"You know," started Josh. "If you want to stare at it all day, you could just take a picture. It'll last longer."

Ron shook himself out of it. "So that's where You-Know-Who -?"

"Yes," Harry said, "but I can't remember it."

"Nothing," Ron asked incredulously.

"Well – I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."

"Wow," the red-haired boy said. He continued to star at Harry until he finally realized it and started looking out the window.

"Are all your family wizards," asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.

"Er – yes, I think so," Ron said. "I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."

"So you must know loads of magic already."

The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley was talking about.

"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"

"Horrible – well, not all of them. My aunt, uncle, and cousin are, though. Then Mrs. Kingsford asked me to live with her, Josh, and his little sister, Erica the whole month of August and I definitely have to say that I prefer to live there than with my Muggle relations."

Ron turned to look at Josh carefully, though he didn't stare like he did with Harry. "So what about your family?"

"My mother's a witch. My father was a Muggle. He died helping a complete stranger from getting mugged in London. My sister, though, is a Muggle, but she looks like a clone of my mom except for her eyes. She's got my father's eyes. I, on the other hand, look exactly like my dad and have my mom's talent with magic."

Ron chuckled to himself. "I wish I didn't have so many siblings. I got 6 siblings. 5 boys and my little sister, Ginny. I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. Bill and Charlie have already left – Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a perfect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."

Ron reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out a fat gray rat, which was asleep.

"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a perfect, but they couldn't aff – I mean, I got Scabbers instead." Ron's ears went pink thinking that he may have said too much because he went back to staring out the window.

Neither Harry nor Joshua seemed to care about his little slip up. Harry hadn't been able to buy anything more than a month ago, and he told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up immensely.

"...and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldermort -"

Ron gasped, though Josh had long since gotten used to hearing the Dark Lord's name from Harry.

"What?"

"_You said You-Know-Who's name!_" exclaimed Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people -"

"I'm not trying to be _brave_ or anything, saying the name," Harry said, "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn...I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately. "I bet I'm the worst in the class."

Josh smacked him upside the head and gave him a soft glare. "Listen to me, Harry. We've been studying our asses off all of August. Mom even let us practice some safe spells in the backyard. That's why there are teachers there. To help you learn. If it were all about experience before coming to school, then that blond prick from Madam Malkin's shop would be right and only those from old Wizarding families would be allowed to attend. Give it a rest and learn to relax, bro. No sense in getting flustered and depressed."

"Bro," Ron asked, his eyes wide in shock. "You're his brother?"

Josh shrugged his shoulders. "Not by blood, but my mom and sister treat him like another member of the family and so do I. We've been trying to help teach him more about our world and I think he's been getting better." Harry smiled. "Besides, I bet there will be loads of people who come from Muggle families there to learn with you."

At around half past twelve there was a great commotion outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid the door open and said, "Anything off the trolley, dears?" Harry, having forgone breakfast, leapt to his feet while Ron's ears turned pink while he muttered about having sandwiches.

Joshua stood up and walked into the corridor, knowing that Harry didn't have a lot of experience with Wizard foods. Turning to the two, he nodded his head before walking out to the trolley. "Actually, I was wondering if you could give us...three of everything. My friend with black hair's been living with a Muggle family and doesn't quite know his way around our snacks." The woman nodded as he handed over a Galleon and took his snacks to the compartment before shutting the door.

"Eat up, my friends. There's plenty to go around for everyone. One of everything for each of us." Joshua held up a Chocolate Frog tightly in his hands as it tried to escape while Harry lifted up a Cauldron Cake and Ron held a Licorice Wand. "To new friends and new beginnings!"

"Here, here!"

And with that, they ate like kings...or at least kids since most of the stuff was candy. Once they all got a hold of their Chocolate Frogs, Harry's had slipped out the open window due to his shock that the thing moved, they compared cards. Harry got Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of the school and was amazed when it winked at him. He turned the card over, to read his stats, but when he flipped it over to see him again, Dumbledore had vanished.

Joshua had gotten Gwenog Jones, the first ever female captain and beater for the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team. Ron, however...

"I've got Morgan le Fray again. I've already got 6 of her...do you want it, Harry? You can start collecting."

"No thanks, but in, you know, the Muggle world, people stay put in photos."

"Do they? They don't move at all? _Weird!_"

As they continued to eat their snacks, someone came knocking on the door. Joshua opened the door and saw a young round-faced boy standing behind a young girl with brown hair and brown eyes wearing a set of robes.

"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"

Everyone shook their heads except for Josh, who simply reached atop his head and pulled down a toad. "This him?"

"Treavor," the young boy shouted, quick to grab his toad from the stranger.

"Yeah. Little bugger landed on my head as the trolley showed up. Didn't have the heart to take him off since he seemed to like it up there so much." Drawing his wand, he pointed it at his scalp. "_Aguamenti._" A small spray of bubbly water slightly doused his hair and scalp before he cast another. "_Impervious._" The water on his hair was repelled by the magic and flew out the open window.

Everyone was looking at him oddly, even Harry. "What? So I learned those spells just in case I was somewhere that didn't have a shower nearby. Is that so wrong?" The young girl shook her head.

"Those are both, at least, second year spells, maybe even third year. How did you learn those?" Joshua shrugged his shoulders.

"Dunno. Back when I was ten, my mom taught me those spells. Don't ask me why because I'm not a mind reader. She just wanted me to learn them."

"Well, I've learned a few simple spells of my own...just for practice mostly and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's got magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard – I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough – I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

"Well, my name's Joshua Kingsford, though you can call me Josh. Only my mother calls me Joshua and only when she's royally pissed at me." Nodding his head toward Ron, he continued. "That's Ron Weasley...and that," he said, nodding to Harry, "is Harry Potter."

"Are you really," said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course – I've got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in _Modern Magical History_ and _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_ and_ Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century._"

"Am I," Harry asked curiously.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," she said firmly. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad...Anyway, thank you for finding Neville's toad, Josh. You three might want to change into your robes before we get to school."

The trio nodded, deciding to do just that and change into their robes. "Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron as his robe slipped over his head.

"I don't know. She's kinda cute, if you ask me," said Joshua as he slipped his arms through the sleeves. Ron just looked at him like he was a raving lunatic. "Plus, she's probably the smartest first year witch here. I wouldn't mind having someone to do homework and study with if they're that intelligent." Harry had to give Josh the point on that last remark. Hanging around someone that smart would make one wish to strive harder to get better grades.

"What house are your brother's in," asked Harry to Ron.

"Gryffindor," he replied with a gloomy tone. "Mom and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw _would_ be too bad, but imagine if they put you in Slytherin."

"That's the house Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"

"Yeah," said Ron, flopping back into his seat.

"So what do your oldest brothers do now that they've left, anyway?"

"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," Ron said. "Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the _Daily Prophet_, but I don't suppose you get that with Muggles – someone tried to rob a high-security vault."

Harry stared.

"Really? What happened to them," he asked incredulously.

"That's just it. Nothing. That's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."

Harry let the news flip around in his mind a bit. Every time Voldermort's name was mentioned, he felt a prickling sensation all over. Before now, it was far more comfortable saying his name than it was after entering the magical community.

"What's your Quidditch team," Ron asked, trying to get their minds off of Dark thoughts.

"Personally, I like the Holyhead Harpies. I can definitely respect a woman who can get just as down and dirty as most men," Josh stated.

Harry just shrugged it off. "I don't have a particular team that I root for. I just like to watch them play."

As they continued to talk about their favorite sport, the compartment door slid open revealing three boys. All of whom had Josh flexing his fist trying to keep his cool temperment. Harry and Josh recognized the shorter of the three as the one from Madam Malkin's shop.

"Is it true," the blond-haired boy said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, isn't it?"

"Yes," Harry stated as he glanced at the other two boys. Both were rather thick and looked mean, but compared to Joshua's temper, they were like mice in front of a hawk.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," he said after noticing Harry's gaze. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Ron gave a slight cough, though it was obviously a snicker. Draco looked at him.

"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford." He turned to Harry. "You'll soon find out that some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

Joshua's eyes widened in anger. He stood up, all 5' 11'' of muscle and brain, towering over the three as he looked down at them. "Get. Out. Now. If you don't leave us be in the next five seconds, I cannot be held responsible for what I do to you or how you look after I'm done." Draco looked intimidated, but Crabbe and Goyle stepped up, attracting a lot of attention from those getting ready. Josh looked back at Ron and Harry before looking at the two muscle-bound oafs.

Josh cracked the bones in his neck, resulting in a very audible snap. His knuckles were popping and a smirk made its way to his face. "Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Crabbe moved in first, trying to swing a heavy fist at Josh's face only to see him duck and hammer a blow in his gut, sending him crashing to the floor with the wind knocked out of him. Goyle was next and he tried to go low, so he wouldn't be caught like Crabbe. Josh sidestepped, locked the boy's extended elbow in place before shoving his into the pudgy boy's rib cage, sending him down to the ground in pain.

"If you're gonna make a move, brat, I suggest you take it. I've got witnesses willing to back me up if I get into any trouble for this. I'm giving you one last chance, Malfoy," the raven-haired boy growled. "Back down and tend to your wounds and if I so much as see you or your shadows following or threatening my friends, I will make sure that expulsion is the last thing you three will be worried about." Malfoy glared at him before taking Crabbe and Goyle back to their compartment.

Joshua flopped into his chair with a sigh followed by a yawn. Ron was stunned at what just happened. Last thing he remembered was that Malfoy character talking down about his family. The next moment, Crabbe and Goyle were trying to assault Joshua for standing up for his friends only for them to be on the ground 30 seconds later. "That was bloody wicked."

Joshua snorted slightly. "Nah. Not even a decent workout. I was bored to tears before they even thought about trying to threaten me by using numbers. Besides, I hate fighting."

Ron's eyes only got wider. "Then why did you fight them if you hate fighting?"

"Because if I don't stand up for my values, my friends, and my family, then I am not a man. I am a coward. Sometimes, people need common sense knocked into their heads while others learn from their mistakes."

"That's good to hear," called a soft, yet bossy voice. Turning to the entrance, they saw Hermione Granger standing there with a soft smile on her face. "I don't doubt that you'll definitely be in Gryffindor." She looked at Harry and Ron to see they were in their robes already. "I originally came back here to tell you that we're almost at Hogwarts and that you'd need to put your robes on quickly, but I see you already have them on.

Night soon crawled across the sky, darting the inky black pool with briliant stars. A voice was heard across the train saying, "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school seperately."

Harry's stomach began doing backflips and Ron's skin was paling quicker than normal. Joshua looked to be the only one unaffected by the first-day jitters, though you could see his eyes shifting quicker than most thought possible.

It didn't take long before the train came to a complete stop and students were shoving one another out of the way. Off in the distance, Hagrid's burly form was the only thing glaringly obvious to Harry and Joshua as they walked over while the giant yelled, "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry? Josh?"

Hagrid's face was like a beacon over the ocean of students. "C'mon, follow me – any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling around in the darkness, the first year students followed Hagrid down to what appeared to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees surrounding them. Nobody spoke much, not even Josh. Neville, the boy who lost his toad earlier, sniffed once or twice.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here." As soon as they turned the corner, people were already in awe at the magnificent sight.

The narrow path had finally opened onto the egde of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

"No more'n four to a boat," Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shoreline. Harry, Ron, and Joshua were followed into their boat by Hermione.

"Everyone in," Hagrid asked once again, who had a boat to himself. "Right then – FOREWARD!"

And the fleet of tiny boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It toweredover them as they sailed closer and closer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!"

As the first boats reached the cliff, everyone bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. Truthfully, Joshua had to lay down a bit more than other students due in large part to his unusual height for one his age. He stretched his hands over his head as it gently touched the lake. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles. It was then that Josh was happy to be wearing his boots rather than tennis shoes.

The students clambored up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They wealked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here," Hagrid asked, getting resounding nods from everyone around. The giant man raised a fist and knocked three times on the tremendous castle door. The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fir the whole of the Dursleys' house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.

They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry and Joshua could already hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right – the rest of the school must already be here – but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing a lot closer than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," the professor said calmly. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormatory, and spend free time in your house common room."

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

Her eyes seemed to linger on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair until Joshua playfully smacked him upside the head, which got McGonagall to glance at him for only a moment.

"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."

As soon as she left the chambers, Harry swallowed the lump building in his throat.

"How exactly do they sort us into houses," he asked Ron.

"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said that it hurts a lot, but I think he was just joking."

Harry's heart jumped. A test? In front of the whole school? But he didn't know anything yet – what on earth would he have to do? He never expected something like this the moment they arrived. He looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terrified, too. Nobody was talking much except for Hermione Granger and Josh, who were whispering rather quickly about all the spells they'd learned and wondering whether they'll need one. Harry tried not to listen to her. He'd never been more nervous, never, not even when he had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that he'd somehow turned his teacher's wig blue. He kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come walking back and lead them to his doom.

Then something happened that made him jump about a foot in the air – several people behind him screamed.

"What the -?"

He gasped, as did many people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room, talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little mon was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance -"

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost – I say, what are you doing here?"

A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.

Joshua smiled, but nobody answered in fear.

"New students," shouted the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?"

"Indeed, Fat Friar. It's an honor to meet the ghost of Hufflepuff house," Josh said kindly. The friar smiled back at him.

"The pleasure is mine, dear child," said the Friar. "I hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My old house, as you well know."

"Even if I don't get into Hufflepuff, it would be my pleasure to spend time in your presence." The Friar and his friend nodded before disappearing through a wall.

"The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

Professor McGonagall had returned and the last of the ghosts had disappeared.

"Now, form a line," she said to the first years, "and follow me."

Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind Joshua, with ron behind him, and they walked out of the chamber and back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

Harry had never even imagines such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with teacher's behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the student, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in _Hogwarts: A History_."

It was hard to believe that there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens.

Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house.

_Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it,_ Harry thought wildly, that seemed the sort of thing – noticing that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, he stared at it, too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth – and the hat began to sing:

"_Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave of heart,_

_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

_Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Thosepatient Hufflepuffs are true_

_And unafraid to toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclawm_

_If you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folk use any means_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hand (though I have none)_

_For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.

"So we've just got to try on the hat," Ron whispered to Harry. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."

Harry smiled weakly. Yes, trying on the hat was a lot better than having to do a spell, but he did wish they could have tried it on without everyone watching. The hat seemed to be asking rather a lot; Harry didn't feel brave or quick-witted or any of it at the moment. If only the hat had mentioned a house for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for him.

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a parchment. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said with authority. "Abbott, Hannah!"

Joshua took a mental note. They were doing this by last name from A-Z. He was definitely going to be last or close to it. Hanna, a pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put the hat on, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause -

"HUFFLEPUFF," the hat shouted as loud as it could.

The table on the far right cheered as loud as they could as Hannah went to sit down with them. Josh and Harry noticed the ghost of the Fat Friar wave to her.

The list went on:

"Bones, Susan!" - "HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Boot, Terry!" - "RAVENCLAW!"

"Brocklehurst, Mandy!" - "RAVENCLAW!"

"Brown, Lavender!" - "GRYFFINDOR!"

The table where Ron's brothers sat erupted in applause, motioning for the young girl to join them at their table on the far left end of the room.

"Bulstrode, Millicent!" - "SLYTHERIN!"

As names were called and matched with houses, Harry began to feel a bit dizzy and ill. His nerves were getting to him and he didn't know quite what to do.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!" - "HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Finnigan, Seamus!" - "GRYFFINDOR!"

"Granger, Hermione!" Everyone was silent as Hermione ran over to the Sorting Hat and quickly placed it on her head. Not even a second went by when the hat opened it's maw and shouted...

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Everyone was shouting, whistling, and clapping, even Joshua who looked happier than when he played with his sister. Just seeing Josh smile seemed to make Harry's nervousness ease up a bit and he wasn't feeling so ill.

"Kingsford, Joshua!"

The room was silent. Hermione and the Weasley family were looking at him in awe. He was damn near as tall as Percy and he was at least a good five, maybe six, years younger than the perfect. As he stepped toward Professor McGonagall, he took a deep breath and slowly released it before placing the hat on his head. He took his place on the stool and closed his eyes, allowing the hat's magic to work.

Dumbledore looked at him in curiosity. This was the young boy who spent the last month with Harry, yet he treated him the same as he would anyone from the street rather than worshiping him or whispering about him. Hagrid told him a bit about him and his family. A Muggle father and sister while his mother was a former Ravenclaw witch many years ago.

"Very strange," a voice seemed to whisper in his ear. "I remember your mother from the day I Sorted her into Ravenclaw. You have her thirst for knowledge, yet you are humble and kind to both Muggle and wizard alike. You also stood up for your friends on the train, even going as far as to physically retaliate when they lunged at you. The only house I know won't suit you is Slytherin, so that's out of the question. What to do? What to do? I guess I shall place you...in GRYFFINDOR!"

The table exploded in celebration. Hermione seemed to smile just a bit brighter as he removed the hat and placed it back on the stool. Walking over to the Gryffindor table, he shook Percy's hand and high-fived the twins before taking a seat across from Hermione.

"Longbottom, Neville!"

When he put the hat on his head, the hat curled up a bit as though it were thinking. Only a minute passed by when the hat shouted...

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Another couple of names went by until one was called that chilled Harry to the bone.

"Malfoy, Draco!" The hat didn't touch his head before shouting, "SLYTHERIN!" Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself while they looked a little worse for the wear.

Not many people left now.

"Moon" ... "Nott" ... "Parkinson" and then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" …., then "Perks, Sally-Anne"..., and then, at last -

"Potter, Harry!"

Harry stepped forward. He turned back and saw the closest thing he had to a brother give him a reassuring smile and nod. Whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.

"_Potter_, did she say?"

"_The_ Harry Potter?"

Everyone in the room craned their necks as high as they could go, every set of eyes landing firmly on him. He swallowed before grabbing the hat, placing it on his head, and sitting down in the chair.

"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's tallent, oh my goodness, yes – a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting...So where shall I put you?"

Harry gripped the edges of the stool firmly as he thought, _Not Slytherin, not Slytherin_.

"Not Slytherin, eh," the small voice said. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that – no? Well, if you're sure – better be GRYFFINDOR!"

The next thing Harry heard was the shout coming from Gryffindor table. Everyone was standing up and cheering. Walking over to the table, he shook hands with Percy the Perfect while Fred and George shouted, "We got Potter! We got Potter!" A ghost came up to him and patted his arm, giving Harry the feeling of taking a bath in ice water.

He could see the High Table now. At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and gave him a big thumbs up. Harry grinned back. And there, in the center of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Harry instantly recognized him from his Chocolate Frog card. His silver hair shone as brightly as the ghosts around them. Next to catch his eye was Professor Quirrell, wearing a funny purple turban. He sat next to Joshua before giving him a quick 5 second man hug.

"Thomas, Dean!" - "GRYFFINDOR!"

"Turpin, Lisa!" - "RAVENCLAW!"

"Weasly, Ron!" The three brothers were waiting at Gryffindor table with bated breath while Harry, Josh, and Hermione waited to see the outcome. "GRYFFINDOR!"

The table erupted into cheers once again as another first year was made a Gryffindor. As the last student, "Zabini, Blaise", was Sorted into Slytherin, Professor McGonagall rolled up the scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.

Harry looked down at the empty gold plate in front of him. He only just realized just how hungry he was. The pumpkin pasties seemed like ages ago.

Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them there.

"Welcome," he said as loud as he could. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

Every table cheered while Joshua was busy holding in his laughter. Harry was stuck somewhere between cheering and laughing like his friend.

"Is he – a bit mad," Harry asked Percy with uncertainty.

"Mad," the perfect said airily. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"

"They do say genius and madness are two sides of the same coin, I suppose. Can't be one without the other."

Harry looked down and saw thousands of different dishes lining the table from end to end. He'd never seen so many things he liked to eat at one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint hamburgers.

While the Dursleys had never starved him, he'd never been allowed to eat as much as he liked. That changed when he spent the month at the Kingsfords. Harry quickly piled a bit of everything on his plate except for the peppermints and began to eat.

"This does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly, watching Harry cut up his steak.

Joshua looked up and smiled kindly at the ghost. "Hello, Sir Nicholas. How've you been lately?" The ghost looked fairly stunned when the first year addressed him properly.

"Quite well, actually," he said. "How is it you know my name as well as the Friar?"

"My mother was Morganna Kingsford. She told me about all of the ghosts in Hogwarts from when she was a student here." Sir Nicholas looked like he was thinking when his face lit up.

"I remember her! Quite the brilliant young witch, she was. I was hoping she would be made a Gryffindor, but she ended up in Ravenclaw. I hope to hear nothing but good things about you, Master Kingsford." Josh smiled gently before nodding his head.

Ron looked at Sir Nicholas in recognition. "I know who you are," he said enthusiastically. "My brothers told me about you – you're Nearly Headless Nick!"

Sir Nicholas scoffed. "I would _prefer_ you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy -" he started only to be interrupted by Seamus Finnigan.

"_Nearly_ Headless? How can you be _nearly _headless?"

Sir Nicholas appeared rather miffed. "Like _this,_" he said irritably. He grabbed his left ear and tugged. His whole head swung off his neck and fell to the side as if it was attached to a hinge.

"So – new Gryffindors! I hope you're going to help us win the house championship this year? Gryffindors have never gone so long without winning. Slytherins have got the cup six years in a row! The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable – and he's the Slytherin ghost."

Everyone looked to the Slytherin table and saw a ghost with gaunt face, blank eyes, and robes stained silver with blood. When Seamus asked how he got covered in blood, Nicolas simply shook his head and said he never asked before. When everyone was finished eating, the food seemingly disappeared into thin air, leaving clean plates and goblets. Seconds later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in all flavors, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding...

As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families.

"I'm half-and-half," said Seamus proudly. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mom didn't tell him she was a witch 'till after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him."

Joshua chuckled. "Same here, but after they got married, my dad took the WOMBAT Exam and passed with an Exceeds Expectations. First Muggle to ever do that, if memory serves. Most who do pass barely scrape by with an Acceptable. My old man was ex-Brittish Military. Taught me how to fight while my mom helped teach me magic...or as much as she could teach me without Ministry permission, I should say. I've even got a little sister, but she's a Muggle too. She looks like my mom and takes after my dad while I look like my dad, but take after my mom."

"What about you, Neville," asked Ron.

"Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch," the pudgy boy said, "but the family thought I was all-Muggle for ages. My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me – he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned – but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of the upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced – all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased, Gran was crying, she was so happy. And you should have seen their faces when I got in here – they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great Uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad.

On Harry's other side, Joshua, Percy Weasley, and Hermione were talking about lessons ("I_ do_ hope they start right away, there's so much to learn, I'm particularly intrested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it's supposed to be very difficult -"; "You'll be starting small, just matches into needles and that sort of thing -"; "I heard one year, a first year Slytherin went to the library to look up harder transfiguration spells and accidentally ended up turning his feet into dogs. It took the professors a week just to get him to stop moving and a month to return his feet to normal -"; "Well, there was a student who turned his feet into _tongues_. Couldn't walk without tasting dirt and other nasty things -")

Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.

It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Harry's eyes – and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on his forehead.

"Ouch," Harry exclaimed, clasping a hand to his head.

"What is it," asked Percy.

Harry shook his head slightly. "N-nothing."

Just as quickly as the pain had come, it vanished into thin air. Even harder to shake off was the feeling Harry had gotten from the teacher's look – a feeling that he didn't like Harry at all.

"Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell," he asked the perfect.

"Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's looking so nervous, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to – everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."

Harry watched Snape for a while, but Snape didn't look at him again.

At last, desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.

"Ahem – just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you."

"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." Dumbledore's eyes seemed to beam in the direction of the Weasley twins.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors."

"Quidditch trials will be held the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch."

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

Harry wanted to chuckle, but even the somber look his 'brother' wore kept him from doing so. "He's not serious, is he?"

"Must be," said Percy, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere – the forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that, I do think he might have told us perfects, at least."

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song," cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed. "Everyone pick their favorite tune and off we go!"

"_Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,_

_Teach us something please,_

_Whether we be old and bald,_

_Or young with scabby knees,_

_Our heads could do with filling_

_With some interesting stuff,_

_For now they're bare and full of air,_

_Dead flies and bits of fluff,_

_So teach us things worth knowing,_

_Bring back what we've forgot,_

_Just do your best, we'll do the rest,_

_And learn until our brains all rot."_

Everyone finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley trins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

The Gryffindor first years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up thw marble staircase. Harry's legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. Josh must have noticed because he fell back and allowed Harry to place an arm around his shoulder as they marched on. They passed through hidden corridors behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet, and Harry was just wondering how much farther they had to go when they came to a sudden halt.

A bundle of walking sticks was floating in midair ahead of them, and as Percy took a step toward them they started throwing themselves at him.

"Peeves," Percy whispered to the first years. "A poltergeist." He raised his voice. "Peeves – show yourself."

Apparantly, 'Peeves' didn't want to obey and delivered unto them a raspberry of epic proportions.

"Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?"

There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross-legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.

"Ooooooooh," he said, with an evil cackle. "Ickle Firsties! What fun!"

He swooped down suddenly at them. As everyone ducked, Peeves noticed only first year not cowering was Joshua, who was supporting a tired Harry. His eyes were closed although the only sign he was awake was the twitching of the fingers on his right hand. He took a deep breath before opening his eyes with a half-lidded glare that made Peeves flinch.

"Leave. Now." While he knew the first year student couldn't hurt him, that glare of his was terrifying. Dropping the sticks from above Neville, he floated away, rattling the suits of armor as he left. Josh took one of the sticks near his feet and used it to swat away the falling ones nearing Neville's head harmlessly. He released the stick and began to walk upstairs.

"How did you do that," asked Percy. "He normally only listens to the Bloody Baron. He won't even listen to us perfects."

"I'm tired. I don't have time right now to deal with nuisances like him. I just want to get to bed, fall asleep, and wake up for classes tomorrow. Plus," he added, "Harry's heavy."

Harry wanted to glare at Josh, but he was just too tired to do so. As they went on, they found the end of the corridor. At the very end hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.

"Password," she asked.

"Caput Draconis," Persy replied, and the portrait swung open to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it – Neville needed a leg up – and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cozy, round room full of squashy armchairs.

Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormatory and the boys through another. At the top of a spiral staircase – they were obviously in one of the towers – they found their beds at last: six four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pajamas and fell into bed.

"Great food, isn't it," Ron muttered to Harry and Josh through the hangings. "Get _off_, Scabbers! He's chewing my sheets!"

Josh sighed. "Toss your rat into the air, Ron. I'll deal with him." Ron nodded and did as he was told. "_Petrificus Totalus._" With a flick of his wand, the rat, once flailing to the ground hit the floor, paralyzed and unable to move. Josh replaced the wand under his pillow before nodding off to sleep, too tired to hear Ron thank him or to hear Harry's snoring.

Finally. Total silence.


	3. Introduction to Magic

**Guardian Mage**

**Written By: Rave Rose of Twilight**

**Warning: I don't own Harry Potter. I will never own Harry Potter unless I can discover time travel and if I did, I wouldn't be telling any of you this anyways because I'd be a multi-millionaire.**

Chapter Three: Introduction to Magic

Everywhere they went, you could hear the whispers.

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Next to the tall kid and the kid with red hair."

"Did you see his face?"

"Did you see his scar?"

They couldn't escape them, no matter how hard they tried to. Harry's two companions, Josh and Ron, could feel the nervousness coming from the young boy in waves. Harry didn't want to be famous. He never asked for it. He'd rather just be normal. Treated like anyone else. No special treatment. No hidden giggles from girls he didn't know. Nobody whispering about how easy he must have had it. Harry just wanted to get to class.

There were a hundred and fourty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere differentn on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely or tickled them in the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid oak walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armor could walk.

The ghosts didn't exactly help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided through a door you were trying to open. Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindors in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late to class. Of course, if you were traveling with or around Joshua then he wouldn't bother you as much.

He wouldn't help you, but he wouldn't bother you either.

Even worse than Peeves, if that was at all possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Harry and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him on their first morning. Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that, unfortunately, turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor. He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing by.

Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-colored creature with bulging, lamplike eyes just like Filch's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later. Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone (except perhaps the Weasley twins) and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick.

And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic than just waving your wand and saying a few funny words.

They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. He was sure Joshua took more delight out of those homework assignments the most since he would stay up for a few hours to gaze at the stars. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, one of the main classes Josh and Neville seemed to excell at, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.

Quite easily the most boring class known to wizarding kind was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up the next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.

Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class, he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.

Professor McGonagall was again different. Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said, "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

She then followed that inspiring warning up by turning her desk into a pig and back again. Everyone was impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized that they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn them into a needle. By the end of the lesson, Joshua and Hermione Granger had made any difference to their matches; Professor McGonagall showed the class how they had gone all silver and pointed and gave the two a rare smile.

The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure rhwy believed the stories. For one thing, when Seamus asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went. Joshua had told Harry that there was a strange magic surrounding the turban, but Harry put it at the back of his mind.

Harry was relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn that even people like Ron didn't have much of a head start.

Friday was an important day for Harry, Ron, and Josh. They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once.

"What have we got today," Harry asked Ron as he poured sugar on his porridge.

"Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Ron in response. "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favors them – we'll be able to see if it's true."

"Wish McGonagall favored us," said Harry. Professor McGonagall was head of Gryffindor House, but it hadn't stopped her from giving them a huge pile of homework the day before.

"Don't be so sure about that, Harry. If they favored us, then we wouldn't work as hard as we do for our grades. When the time comes, you will thank her for not showing favoritism," said Josh as he drank a little bit more coffee from his mug. "Besides, playing favorites doesn't help anyone in the end."

Ron scoffed slightly. "You say that, but your marks in Transfiguration, Charms, and Herbology are better than ours and you make it look easy."

"Just because I make it look easy doesn't mean I'm not putting in a lot of work. On that Match-to-Needle Spell Professor McGonagall had us try, my match, the first couple of times I tried it, would bend at odd angles, light on fire, or jam itself into the desk. I'm good at Herbology because it interests me. Charms just seem to come naturally to me regardless of how much work I put into it. I always want to push myself just a little bit further so that I can become that much better at it."

Harry nodded to himself. Sometimes, it felt that Josh simply didn't sleep and did his homework and practiced his spells all night while they went to sleep. "I remember something you told me before we came to Hogwarts. You said, "If you have a fifty percent chance to pass a test and studying and practice would give you just one more percent chance to passing it, would you do it?". Back then, I didn't quite understand what you meant, but now I do. That's why you never sleep as often as everyone else, isn't it? You stay up doing your homework and practicing your spells, don't you?"

Josh put his finger on the tip of his nose and nodded. "Doesn't help as much when, if I do go to sleep, I end up waking myself up at five in the morning to jog around the castle until breakfast."

As they ate, owls of all shapes, sizes, and colors showed up with something in their talons. Mail call. Harry and the others had grown used to this by now, but it had given him quite a shock the first morning it happened when a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps. During one instance, someone had sent Draco a package and his owl dropped it. A strange wind from nowhere seemed to blow the package off course and slammed into his bowl of piping hot porridge into his face. Remembering the Malfoy brat's screams of agony made him smile sometimes.

Draco blamed Joshua, Harry, and Ron, but nothing could be proven. Of course, Joshua was whispering something to himself while pointing in Malfoy's general direction, but neither Harry nor Ron would tell anyone this...except for Fred and George, of course.

Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything so far. She sometimes flew in to nibble his ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the owlery with the other school owls. This morning, however, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto Harry's plate. Harry tore it open at once. It said, in a very untidy scrawl:

Dear Harry,

I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig.

Hagrid

Harry borrowed Ron's quill, scribbled _Yes, please, see you later on_ on the back of the note and sent Hedwig off again. Vega flew by and seemed to dive toward Joshua before pulling up and tossing the letter, hitting him in the chest. Joshua smiled before opening the letter.

Inside was a small picture of his mother and baby sister, waving at him animatedly. Erica was jumping up and down, trying to get his attention until her mother picked her up and they both waved at him.

The letter read:

Hello Josh/Big Brother,

I hear you've already gone a week into your first year. Scaring Peeves with a glare on your first night. I nearly broke into a fit of laughter. Of course, your marks are rather good so far, but this is the beginning of the year. They won't give you anything too hard until midterms so keep up the good work.

Love,

Your mother and sister

Joshua stuffed the picture into his right inside breast pocket of his robe before placing the letter in his pants pocket. He'd write them back later tonight. Looking at the clock, he noticed that they had about half an hour to get to Potions. Telling Ron and Harry, the trio speed walked (as it was against the rules to run in the hallways) to Potions down in the dungeons.

It was lucky that Harry had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that happened to him so far.

At the start-of-term banquet, Harry had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end of the first Potions lesson, he knew he had been wrong. Snape didn't dislike him – he _loathed _him with a passion.

Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.

Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name. That is where all similarities end between the two teachers.

"Ah, yes," he said softly. "Harry Potter. Our new – _celebrity._"

Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered until Joshua gave them a glare only they noticed, silencing them rather well, if he did say so himself. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of the giant's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.

"You are here to begin to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word – like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses...I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead. Joshua was simply sitting in his seat, a dull look entering his eyes, though the interest and excitement to learn wasn't missing...simply hard to find.

"Potter," Snape said suddenly. "What would I get if I added powwdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

_Powdered root of what to an infusion of what?_ Harry glanced at Ron, who looked just as stumped as he was. Hermione's hand shot into the air, but Joshua forced it down, glancing at her using his peripheral vision and shaking his head. She gave him a rather stern look and he nodded, moving his head toward the exit of the dungeon.

"Kingsford," Snape shot at him, having noticed the descrete movements of his head. "Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"The stomach of a goat, Professor Snape," he said, hiding a smirk while Snape frowned. "It has the capability to save you from most poisons, if I remember correctly."

"Correct," Snape snarled before turning back to Harry. "Let's give Mister Potter one more try. What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Harry shook his head in disappointment. "I don't know, sir."

"For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of the Living Death. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite." Looking around, Snape snapped at the rest of the students. "Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"

"One point will be given to Gryffindor for Mr. Kingsford's correct answer, but two will be deducted from Gryffindor for Mr. Potter's lack of knowledge."

Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like, and Kingsford because he couldn't find anything wrong as he worked. He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy and Kingsford had stewed their horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed. Moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.

"Idiot boy," Snape growled, clearing the spilled potion away with a wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"

Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.

"Take him to the hospital wing," Snape snapped at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.

"You – Potter – why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."

This was beyond fair that Harry began to open his mouth when he felt Josh glance at him, shaking his head. "Don't push it," he mouthed silently. "Snape's got an attitude and you're just a target for his aggression"

As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Hermione had taken hold of Josh's hand, dragging him off somewhere while Harry and Ron stuck together. Hermione had just reached the Great Hall when she spun around and leveled a nasty glare at him.

"Just what do you think you were doing back there," she demanded, poking him in the chest. "I knew those answers!"

"But Harry didn't," he explained. "Why else do you think Snape singled him out? He's famous in our world, Hermione. Everyone knows his name when he didn't even know who he really was. I know people like Snape. Because he favors Slytherins, he goes after everyone else outside of that group to make his house look better. He knew he could have taken points from Neville and Seamus, but he didn't. He placed the blame on Harry alone and took a point from him."

"But that's not fair," she shouted.

"Life isn't always fair, Hermione," he shouted back. "Do you think he wants this? To be known around the world for something he never realized he did in the first place? He wants to be treated like anyone else rather than a celebrity. He's dreamed of being normal since he found out he was a wizard and about the events leading up to his fame. There's only so much I can do for him outside of classes. Me and my family are the closest things he's ever had to a normal family. I can't give him the answers to every question. He's got to learn to do things on his own. If anything, and I hate to say this, but Snape's treatment of him is probably the best thing for him. He's become Snape's biggest target out of all of the Gryffindor first years. The more he studies and works on his potions, the less ammunition Snape will have on him and everyone else will see him getting better."

Hermione turned away from Josh, but the two stayed there, saying nothing. "Snape knows he can't target me because my potion this afternoon was perfect and he probably knows I studied the book, too. You're the smartest witch I've ever known. Snape probably figured that out too, which is why he didn't ask you those questions."

Hermione smiled briefly. He meant that he doubted Snape would come after them unless they made a small mistake. Of course, the multitude of compliments he gave her did make her cheeks turn rosy for a bit. "Where is Harry now?"

Josh shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno. Probably at Hagrid's Hut, if that letter Harry got from him is anything to go by. Ron's probably with him too. They've become somewhat inseperable as of late." Joshua laughed to himself. "I wouldn't doubt that they'd end up in detention together, if they ever got one from a teacher."

Hermione giggled a bit, too. It was probably true. Joshua smiled as he heard her laugh for the first time since they met. Then, an idea popped into his head. "Say, Hermione," he stated, grabbing her attention once more. "Since we don't have any other classes today, what would you think if I asked you to accompany me to dinner in the Great Hall? My treat?"

"But the food's free," she stated, the blush in her cheeks rising yet again.

"Exactly."

She nodded, though a bit hesitantly. Could this be considered a date? Would everyone around them turn and look at them?

"Consider this...a way to get to know one another better. We are classmates and members of the same house, afterall. I don't know about you, but I feel a lot more comforable hanging out with people I know than with a total stranger."

Her eyes lit up a bit. She did feel...rather alone and hadn't made any new friends since she got here. Maybe Josh could be her first. Her hesitant nod became more confidant as they strode into the Great Hall together.

The banquet at the start of the term had nothing on tonight's dinner. Sandwiches lined silver platters. There was pizza, stir-fry, meatloaf, and several other recognizable meals that the two enjoyed from their childhood. As the two ate, they shared stories about their lives. Hermione's parents were Muggle dentists while Joshua's mother was a stay-at-home witch and his sister, while looking exactly like her mom, was a Muggle like her father. He even showed her the picture the two took for him. Hermione thought Erica was cute and Morganna was one of the most beautiful women she'd ever seen.

Their conversation went from their lives to school, from school to homework, from homework to the professors. They both agreed that Snape was probably the most hated of all of the professors by student standards. Joshua said he preferred Professors Flitwick and Sprout while Hermione leaned toward Professor McGonagall while Charms was her favorite class.

They quickly began to enjoy the company the other offered as their topics went from school-related to their likes and dislikes. It hadn't been half an hour before they became friends. Eventually, lunch had concluded and everyone left the Grand Hall. On their way to Gryffindor tower, Hermione asked if Josh would care to study with her tomorrow night. Joshua smiled gently and began walking ahead of her.

"It's a date," he said before seemingly disappearing in the throng of students, causing Hermione to blush the most since she was a kid. She walked as fast as she could to get to her room.

As Joshua walked through, slipping and skirting between oncoming students, the smile on his face never left. He loved hearing Hermione giggle when he told a joke and watching her blush up a storm when he complimented her. It didn't take long for him to wind up in front of the Fat Lady's protrait.

"Password."

"Caput Draconis." The portrait swung wide, revealing an upset Harry and Ron standing in front of the board where any schedule changes or changes in the locations of class were posted and frowned before heading to his room for the night.

"Typical," Harry muttered darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."

Joshua walked over and looked at the board again before a grim look overtook his smile. Apparantly, someone decided to post Flying lessons starting Thursday – and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together. His eye twitched and the fire in the fireplace seemed to rise higher and roar louder, scaring Seamus and Neville, who were studying their Potions book.

"Perfect. I thought seeing him at Snape's Potions was bad enough. Now I have to see him twice a bloody week," Josh grumbled. He tried not to let this new bit of news ruin his 'date' with Hermione tonight.

"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," Ron said reasonably, trying to help his newest friend. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."

That was all Draco was good for. He would talk anyones ears off about how unfair he thought it was that first years almost never get on the house Quidditch team. He'd always start some story that almost always ended in him escaping Muggles in helicopters. Of course, Joshua knew for a fact that those stories were total bunk. For one, the Ministry of Magic would be sending letters upon letters to the Malfoy residence about their son being spotted flying on a broom by Muggles. Then he'd end up having to go to trial. Now, while he may get away with it once or twice because of his father's position, the rest would have stuck to him regardless of being a 'pureblood'.

Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life and you could tell when he flinched at the term 'Flying lesson'.

When Hermione came in, she heard the topic of the day was Flying lessons. She was clearly as nervous about flying as Neville, but a reassuring smile from Josh seemed to calm her nerves as well as make her blush a bit before she turned to the girls' dormatory and shut the door firmly. Confused by her reaction, Josh simply shrugged his shoulders before turning in for a while. Do a bit of studying before his 'date' with Hermione. He mostly said that part to Hermione because he knew it would get her to blush, but a part of him wouldn't mind actually going out on a date with her.

Shaking those thoughts from his mind, he continued his studies until about one in the afternoon, choosing now to head to the Great Hall to hang out for a while. As soon as he walked in, he spotted Neville holding onto a red glowing ball that he remembered was called a Remembrall...before Malfoy snatched it from the poor boy. Stomping over, he could already see Crabbe and Goyle flinch as he approached their friend. Once he was behind Malfoy, he tapped the brat on the shoulder, causing him to turn around and pale even further, if that was at all possible.

Josh didn't say a word. His glare was enough to cause Draco to drop the orb on the Gryffindor table before scampering off to the Slytherin table. Harry was smiling and Ron's mouth was on the floor while Neville had a thankful look on his face.

"It's like you've got him trained," Ron said, being the first to react. "Everytime you show up, Malfoy just shuts up immediately and stops acting like a bully."

Joshua just smiled and nodded to Neville before taking his seat. "If there is one thing I know about a bully, it's that when someone bigger and stronger comes into the picture, they get scared and run. Malfoy's no different." Joshua noticed Professor McGonagall ready to come over, but she smiled at the group's guardian before turning back to her lunch.

At three-thirty that afternoon, Harry, Ron, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying ominously in the distance.

The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty-one broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Harry had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left.

Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow hawk-like eyes.

"Well, what are you waiting for," she barked at them. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on. Hurry up."

Harry glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!'"

"UP," everyone shouted.

Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once, but his was one of the few that did. Joshua's seemed to do the same as Harry's broom, though this one looked cleaner than his save for a few spots where the wood was splintered or missing. Hermione's had simply rolled over on the ground and Neville's hadn't moved an inch. Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid, thought Harry; there was a quaver in Neville's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet planted firmkly on the ground. Josh, he figured, had already seen this through the poor boy's movements if the look in his eyes were anything to go by.

Madam Hooch showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Harry and Ron were delighted when she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard." Madam Hooch gave them a stern look that screamed 'Obey Me'. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle -three – two -"

But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.

"Come back, boy," she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle – twelve feet – twenty feet. Harry saw the fearful face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and -

….

No sound was heard. Everyone looked around to see Neville's unconscious form resting peacefully in the hands of Josh, who had shot up after him once he noticed the boy about to fall. He stood on his broom, keeping his legs firm, yet flexible before gently pointing the handle of the broom down to earth. The broomstick Neville was riding rose higher and higher until it could barely be seen by the human eye shortly after drifting toward the forbidden forest.

Joshua laid the boy down on the ground as gently as he could, unaware of everyone else's eyes settling on him. He placed his fingers on the carotid artery before sighing in relief. Looking up at Madam Hooch, he smiled, closing his eyes. "He's just out of it right now and his pulse is normal. Just needs a bit of rest is all."

Madam Hooch walked over and confirmed that nothing was wrong with the boy.

"Come on, boy – it's all right, up you get," she said, helping Neville up after having the living crap scared out of him from the fall. "None of you is to move while I take him to the hospital wing! You leave your brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."

Neville's wiped a few tears from his eyes before hobbling off with Madam Hooch. No sooner were they out of earshot that Malfoy burst into laughter.

"Did you see his face, the great lump?"

The other Slytherins joined in.

"Shut up, Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil.

"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom," said Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl. "Never thought _you'd_ like fat little crybabies, Parvati."

Joshua, still in the room, stepped forward, a down right nasty glare coming from his eyes. "You Slytherins have no right to talk about fat crybabies. Look at Crabbe and Goyle after what happened to them on the train here. After they went down, Draco ran off like the coward he really is." Everyone from Slytherin, Crabbe, Goyle, and Draco included, were glaring at him, but he didn't flinch.

"Look," called Malfoy, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."

The Remembrall glistened in the sun as he held it up.

"Give that here, Malfoy," growled Harry. Everyone stopped talking to watch.

Malfoy sneered at him.

"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find – how about – up a tree?"

"Give it _here_," Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off, followed closely by Crabbe and Goyle. He hadn't been lying, he _could _fly well.

Hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, "Come and get it, Potter!"

Harry grabbed his broom while Josh hopped onto his.

"_No,_" shouted Hermione. "Madam Hooch told us not to move – you'll ger us all into trouble."

Harry ignored her, but Josh didn't. He turned to her and smiled. "Sorry, Hermione, but a Gryffindor stands up for his friends and with those two oafs with Malfoy, Harry'll need my help. Trust me." Hermione bit her lip before nodding and turning away as Harry and Josh took off toward Malfoy and his goons.

Blood was pounding in his ears. He mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soared; air rushed through his hair, and his robes whipped out behind him – and in a rush of fierce joy he realized he'd found something he could do without being taught – this was easy, this was _wonderful._ He pulled his broomstick up a little to take it even higher, and heard screams and gasps of girls back on the ground and an admiring whoop from Ron. He turned his broomstick sharply to face Malfoy in midair. Malfoy looked stunned.

"Give it here," Harry called, "or we'll knock you off your brooms!" Josh was standing on his broom, his stance similar to a skateboarder.

"Oh, yeah," dared Malfoy, trying to sneer, but looking worried instead.

Harry knew, somehow, what to do. He leaned forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands, and it shot toward Malfoy like a javelin. Crabbe and Goyle tried to interfere, but were knocked away by Josh, who chased them away from Harry and Malfoy's little standoff.

"No Crabbe and Goyle to help save your neck this time, Malfoy," Harry called.

The same thought seemed to have struck Malfoy before he sneered at him.

"Fine then. Catch it if you can," the blond-haired brat said before chucking the orb high into the air before dashing back toward the ground. Apparantly, Crabbe and Goyle were thinking along the same lines, but instead of going to the ground willingly, they were forced into a nose dive after Joshua kicked them in the back of their heads, forcing their broomsticks to point downward.

Luckily, if you can say such a thing after being kicked in the back of the head, they rolled away with minor injuries while the handle jammed itself into the ground.

Harry saw, as though in slow motion, the ball rise up in the air and start to fall. He leaned forward and pointed his broom handle down – next second he was gathering speed in a steep dive, racing the ball – wind whistled in his ears, mingled with the screams of onlookers – he stretched out his hand – a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom handle straight, and he toppled gently onto the grass with the Remembrall clutched safely in his fist.

Josh raced over and jumped off the broom when there was about a foot or two left between him and the ground before rolling on the ground and stopping next to Harry.

"Remember when I told you I'd tell you more about Quidditch, Harry," Josh asked, receiving a nod from the young boy. "What you and I just did...was what Quidditch is all about." Harry just fell over, chuckling as he looked at the Remembrall glisten in the sunlight.

"HARRY POTTER! JOSHUA KINGSFORD!"

Even Joshua flinched upon hearing that voice and Harry's heart sank faster than he'd just dived.

Professor McGonagall was running toward them. The two got to their feet, trembling slightly.

"_Never_ – in all my time at Hogwarts -"

Professor McGonagall was practically speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, "- how _dare _you – might have broken your necks -"

"It wasn't their fault, Professor -"

"Be quiet, Miss Patil -"

"But Malfoy -"

"That's _enough_, Mr. Weasley. Potter, Kingsford, follow me, now."

Harry caught the sight of Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's triumphant faces as they left, walking numbly in Professor McGonagall's wake as she strode toward the castle. They were going to be expelled, Harry thought, he just knew it. He wanted to say something to defend himself, but there seemed to be something wrong with his voice. Professor McGonagall was sweeping along without even looking at them; he had to jog to keep up. Now they'd done it. He hadn't even lasted two weeks. He'd be packing up his bags in ten minutes. What would the Dursleys say when he turned up on the doorstep?

Up the front steps, up the marble staircase inside, and still Professor McGonagall didn't say a word to him. She wrenched open doors and marched along corridors with Harry trotting miserably while Josh seemed to be taking it well. Maybe she was taking him up to see Dumbledore. He thought of Hagrid, expelled but allowed to stay on as gamekeeper. Perhaps he could be Hagrid's assistant. His stomach wrenched and turned as he imagined it, watching Ron and the others becoming wizards while he stumped around the grounds carrying Hagrid's bag.

Professor McGonagall stopped outside a familiar classroom. She opened the door and poked her head inside.

"Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?"

Joshua chuckled to himself before laughing a bit harder than normal. Harry thought he'd finally gone mad. Looking over at Harry, he could see the doubting look in his eyes.

"Don't worry, Harry. Wood's a fifth year student and the captain of Gryffindor's Quidditch team. We're not in trouble. We're being recruited!"

Wood, a burly fifth year student, came out of Flitwick's class looking confused.

"Follow me, you three," she said, and they marched on up the corridor, Wood looking curiously at the two first years.

"In here."

Professor McGonagall pointed them into a classroom that was empty except for Peeves, though when Peeves spotted Joshua, he hauled ass like a mule trader in Mexico. Professor McGonagall turned to shut the door before turning to face the three boys.

"Potter, this is Oliver Wood. As Mr. Kingsford stated earlier, he's the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Wood – I've found you a Seeker and a Beater."

Wood's expression changed from confusion to delight.

"Are you serious, Professor?"

"Absolutely," she said crisply. "Mr. Potter is a natural Seeker. I've never seen anything like it. And the way Mr. Kingsford kept Crabbe and Goyle off of young Harry makes him a natural Beater. Was that you're first time on a broomstick, Potter?"

Harry nodded silently. Now that he knew he wasn't in trouble, he could finally relax.

"He caught that thing in his hand after a fifty-foot dive," Professor McGonagall told Wood. "Didn't even scratch himself. Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it better."

Wood now looked like all his dreams had come true at the same time.

"Ever seen a game of Quidditch, Potter," he asked excitedly. Harry nodded.

"I've only seen a few at Josh's house, but it looks exciting."

"You're just the build for a Seeker, too," Wood said, now walking around Harry and staring at him. "Light – speedy – we'll have to get him a decent broom, Professor – a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven, I'd say." He turned his gaze on Josh, who stood like a Muggle soldier being inspected. "Powerful – but quick to react – I'd also request he get a Nimbus Two Thousand, but a Cleansweep Seven will work too."

"I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the first-year rule. Heaven knows, we need a better team than last year. _Flattened_ in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks..."

Professor McGonagall peered sternly over her glasses at Harry.

"I want to hear you're training hard, Potter, or I may change my mind about punishing you two."

Joshua stepped up. "Don't worry, Professor. I'll help Harry out when it comes to his Quidditch training."

She smiled at the young Kingsford boy before turning to Harry.

"Your father would have been proud," she said. "He was an excellent Quidditch player himself."

After they got out from the meeting, Harry and Josh met up with Ron and Hermione to tell them the big news.

"You're _joking._"

It was dinnertime and Harry and Josh had just finished telling Ron and Hermione what had happened when they'd left the grounds with Professor McGonagall. Ron had a piece of steak and kidney pie halfway in his mouth, but he'd forgotten all about it. Hermione was in a similar state with her salad.

"_Seeker and Beater,_" he said. "But first years _never_ – you must be the youngest house players in about -"

"- a century," Harry stated, shoveling pie in his mouth while Josh carved himself some ham steak and began to chew it. After all the excitement and worry this afternoon, he'd been hungry. "Wood told me."

Ron was amazed, so impressed, he just sat and gaped at Harry and Josh.

"Only downside for me is that I'll be replacing one of your brothers for the first game. If I work out, Wood'll have me on standby in case Fred or George gets ill or hurt," Josh stated after swallowing his ham.

"We start training next week," Harry said. "Don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."

Fred and George Weasley now came into the hall, spotted Harry and Josh, and hurried over.

"Well done," George said in a whisper. "Wood told us. We're on the team too – Beaters."

Fred looked at Josh with a small smile. "You'll be my replacement for our first game, so Wood asked us to run you through a few teamwork drills."

"I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch cup for sure this year," George said proudly. "We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us."

"Anyway, we've got to go, Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school."

"Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week. See you."

Fred and George hardly disappeared when someone far less welcome turned up: Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.

"Having a last meal, Potter, Kingsford? When are you getting on the train back to the Muggles?"

Josh stood up with a smirk, looking down at Malfoy. "You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your friends with you?" Harry stood up beside him. "I've got news for you, Malfoy. We're going nowhere. Professor McGonagall saw the whole affair and told us that we wouldn't be punished for doing the right thing."

Crabbe and Goyle paled, but not as bad as Draco. Without warning, Draco got his stones back and glared at Joshua and Harry. "I'd take you on anytime on my own," said Malfoy. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only – no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"

"Actually, I have. Josh will be my second. And you," Harry glared at Malfoy.

"Crabbe," was all he said. Crabbe looked like he was about to pass out. "Midnight alright? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked." Joshua smirked.

"What's wrong," he asked Crabbe. "No contact means I can't knock the living hell out of you like I did on the train. Of course, if you want to back down now, I won't say anything bad about you. Shows you've got more brains than everyone else thought."

Crabbe shook his head. He was going to go ahead with the duel. When Malfoy and his bodyguards left, Joshua began to laugh along with most of the table except for Hermione. "Did you see Crabbe, Harry? Nearly shit himself just looking at me."

Harry was chuckling, too. Crabbe must really be stupid to try and fight Josh.

"Excuse me."

They both looked over at Hermione. "I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying -"

"I bet you could," Ron muttered under his breath.

"- and you mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."

Josh rolled his eyes before smiling at Hermione. "Believe me. I already know what they have planned before they even knew it themselves."

"Oh really? What's that then?"

"They were going to tell Filch that Harry and I were wandering around the corridors. They were never planning on showing up." Hermione's eyes widened slightly along with everyone else's. "That's why we're not going. I studied up on military tactics with my father. Feed the enemy bad intel and lead them into an ambush. Basic, yet effective if your enemy doesn't know or is too bull-headed to think rationally."

"That's quite brilliantly thought out, Josh," said Hermione, surprised that the young boy understood exactly what was going on.

"Think about it this way, who would have gone with Harry if I wasn't here to tell you all this?" Ron raised his hand nervously. "Then you'd both have gotten busted, gotten detention, and several points taken from Gryffindor. Of course, that is, provided you were lucky enough to escape from Filch and Mrs. Norris, that another teacher didn't find you out of bed...during curfew or that someone of higher than average intelligence (cough*Hermione*cough) didn't help you escape."

Ron swallowed the lump in his throat. He'd never been in detention before, but Fred always told him it was an awful place where you were used as a practice dummy for first years who were taking remedial lessons. "Thanks a lot, Josh. Never would have known that 'till after we got caught."

Josh looked up at the clock, noting the time at around six o'clock in the afternoon. "Well, no thanks are necessary. Now, if you don't mind, I'm feeling a bit ripe and need to take a shower."

Harry and Ron raised their glasses to him as he turned around to leave while Hermione was feeling a bit thankful that he stopped Harry from making a stupid decision. They continued to talk to one another for the next hour or so before heading back to their dorms.

As they walked through the portrait leading up to Gryffindor tower, there was no sign of Joshua anywhere. Not even in his room. The more they searched, the less of Joshua they found. Eventually, it was nearing midnight and Harry and Ron were getting worried.

"It's half past eleven," Ron muttered, looking up at the clock. "We'd better go."

They pulled on their bathrobes, picked up their wands, and crept across the tower room, down the spiral staircase, and into the Gryffindor common room. A few embers were still glowing in the fireplace, turning all the armchairs into hunched black shadows. They had almost reached the portrait hole when a voice spoke from the chair nearest them, "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."

A lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink bathrobe and a frown.

"_You,_" Ron said pointedly. "Go back to bed!"

"I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped. "Percy – he's a perfect, he'd put a stop to this."

Harry couldn't believe anyone could be so interfering.

"Come on," he said to Ron. He pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the hole. "We've got to find Josh. Lord knows what could have happened to him after all this time."

Hermione wasn't going to give up that easily, however. She followed Ron through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose.

"Don't you _care_ about Gryffindor, do you _only _care about yourselves, _I_ don't want Slytherin to win the house cut, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells."

"Go away."

"All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so -"

But what they were, they never found out. Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Lady had gone on a nighttime visit and Hermione was locked out of Gryffindor tower.

"Now what am I going to do," she asked shrilly.

"That's your problem," Ron said. "We've got to go find Josh before someone catches him."

They hadn't even reached the end of the hallway when Hermione caught up to them.

"I'm coming with you," she said.

"You are _not._"

"D'you think I'm going to stand around out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all three of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you two, and you can back me up."

"You've got some nerve -" Ron started loudly.

"Shut up, both of you," Harry said sharply. "I heard something."

It was a sort of snuffling.

"Mrs. Norris," asked Ron, squinting through the dark.

It wasn't Mrs. Norris. It was Neville. He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly awake as they crept nearer.

"Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed."

"Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere."

"How're you feeling," asked Harry.

"Fine," Neville said. "Madam Pomfrey told me I was just in shock and passed out after the fall. Said I was good to go a minute after I came to."

"Good – well, look, Neville, we've got to find someone, we'll see you later -"

"Don't leave me," said Neville, scrambling to his feet, "I don't want to stay out here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already."

Ron looked at his watch and glared furiously at Hermione and Neville.

"If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and used it on you."

Hermione opened her mouth, probably to tell Ron exactly how to use the Curse of the Bogies, but Harry hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned them all forward.

The flitted along the corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. At every turn Harry expected to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but they were lucky. They sped up a staircase to the trophy room, which was really close to the showers.

Malfoy and Crabbe weren't here yet. The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. They edged along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either end of the room. Harry took out his wand, just in case Malfoy leapt in and started at once. The minutes crept by.

"He's late, maybe Josh was right," Ron whispered.

Then a noise in the next room made them jump. Harry had only just raised his wand when they heard someone speak – and it wasn't Malfoy.

"Sniff around, my sweet, the other one might be lurking in a corner."

"For crying out loud, Filch," shouted another voice. "I've been trying to tell you that I fell asleep in the showers when you found me. Why the hell else do you think I'm wearing my bathrobe and carrying my clothes? Also, why would I be trying to enter the third floor, when a) I know it's forbidden and death is a very good deterrent and b) I'm fucking naked! Not to mention the fact that I'm still soaking wet!"

"Shut up, you." A smack echoed through the room, making Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville flinch. "We'll see what Professor McGonagall has to say about rulebreakers like you."

"Seriously," Josh said, sounding rather offended. "That was a punch? I've been hit harder by Harry than that!"

It was Filch on the other end with Joshua. Hermione blushed heavily hearing Joshua shout out his situation, but was thankful the darkness hid that from everyone else. Mrs. Norris must be nearby too. Horror-struck, Harry waved madly at the others to follow him as quickly as possible; they scurried silently toward the door, away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the Trophy Room.

"He's in here somewhere," he said, his nose twitching slightly, "probably hiding."

"You must be paranoid, old man," Josh said from behind Filch only for him to turn around and punch him in the nose. There wasn't a crunch. Just the sound of a slap that reverbrated through the room. "And again, I've been hit harder by my little Muggle sister. Just so you know, she's five."

"This way," whispered Harry to the others and, petrified, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. They could hear Filch coming closer thanks in large part to Josh's shouting and ranting. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run – he tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist, and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor.

The clanging and crashing had no doubt woken up the entire castle and Joshua's right eye was twitching furiously.

"PEEVES," Joshua shouted, getting Filch's attention. "If its you tearing up the castle, so help me I'll hunt you down and tear you apart piece-by-piece!"

Harry and the others were silent as they slipped into the Charms classroom, which they knew was miles away from the Trophy Room. He was thankful Josh spoke up to blame Peeves. It was a plausible excuse that easily explained the noise. No doubt Filch would believe it, having had dealt with the Poltergeist's hijinx as long as he had been.

"I think we lost him," Harry said, trying to catch his breath. Neville was bent over, wheezing and spluttering.

"I – _told –_ you," Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest. "He – told – you."

"We've got to get back to Gryffindor tower," Ron said quietly, "quickly as possible."

"Malfoy _was_ lying and Josh was right," Hermione reminded Harry. "You realize that, don't you? He never intended to meet you – Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off."

"Don't you think I know that," Harry growled silently at Hermione. "I never planned on coming here to duel Malfoy. I wanted to look for Josh." Hermione's eyes softened. "Ever since I met him, he and his family have taken care of me far better than the Muggles I was living with. He's been trying his hardest to help me learn all about our kind and everything. He's watched out for me...so I figured it was time I watch out for him for a change."

Ron placed a gentle hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Come on. Let's go."

It wasn't that simple. They hadn't moved more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of another classroom in front of them.

This time, it really was Peeves. He caught sight of them and gave a squeel of delight.

"Shut up, Peeves – please – you'll get us thrown out."

Peeves cackled.

"Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."

Harry sweatdropped. That was the worst rhyme in the history of rhymes.

"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please." Harry was thinking about a million things a second. "If you let us go, I'll get Josh to lay off the next time you pull something around us."

Peeves's eyes widened, if they could do that sort of thing.

"Really? You'll tell the mean one himself to not do anything to me and let me go about my playing?" Harry nodded.

"Should tell Filch, I should," said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "But if I do, Mean One will get all nasty and stop my fun." He cackled. "But if he's gone, it won't matter."

"Guys," Harry said, having seen that gleam in the phantom's eyes before and knew it would only bring trouble. "Run."

All four of them ran through Peeves as he took in a deep breath.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED," Peeves shouted at the top of his voice, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

Neville, Harry, Ron, and Hermione ran as though their lives depended on it. They continued running until they slammed into a door – and it was locked.

"This is it," Ron moaned, as they pushed helplessly at the door, "We're done for! This is the end!"

They could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could with a second pair of footsteps trailing behind him toward Peeves' shouts.

"Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She grabbed Harry's wand and tapped the lock, and whispered, "_Alohomora!_"

The lock clicked and the door swung open – they piled through it, shut it quickly, and pressed their ears against it, listening.

"I'm telling you, Filch. Peeves is just trying to give you the run-around. You've known him longer than me and I can already tell he's just trying to piss you off." A smack. "Will you stop hitting me? It doesn't hurt. It's just annoying."

"Which way did they go, Peeves," Filch demanded of the poltergeist. "Quick, tell me!"

"Say 'please.'"

"Don't mess with me, Peeves, now _where did they go?_"

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," Peeves said in his annoying singsong voice.

"All right – _please._"

"NOTHING! Ha haa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaa!" And they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.

"I hate to tell you I told you so, but...I _did _tell you so." Filch just swore louder. "Now, can we go see Professor McGonagall and explain to her why one of her students was caught dripping wet and naked in the middle of the corridor as they were heading back to their dorms or am I free to go?"

Filch looked at the young boy he caught and glared at him before turning away and walking down the corridors with Mrs. Norris behind him.

"He thought this door was locked," Harry whispered. "I think we'll be okay – get _off, _Neville!" For Neville had been tugging on the sleeve of Harry's bathrobe for the last minute. "_What?_"

Harry turned around – and saw, quite clearly, what. For a moment, he was sure he'd walked into a nightmare – this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.

They weren't in a room, as he had supposed. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And now they knew why it was forbidden.

They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between the ceiling and the floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.

It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Harry knew that the only reason they weren't already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.

Harry groped for the doorknob – between Filch and death, he'd take Filch.

The door opened suddenly, causing them to fall backward. Joshua shut the door firmly, yet quietly before leveling them with a glare that demanded an explaining of epic proportions. He eased up, sensing their nervousness quite easily before cracking the bones in his neck with practiced ease.

"Come on, everyone. It's been a long night and we've all been through our fair share of insanity." Everyone nodded in acknowledgement before following Josh's lead back to the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.

"Where on earth have you all been," she asked the students before her.

"We were just getting out of the showers not long ago, my Lady." She nodded her head in acceptance. "Pig snout." The Fat Lady nodded before swinging open, allowing the first years to enter with ease.

Before anyone could move to their dorms, Joshua drew his wand and pointed it at them. "Now, I'm going to get changed into my bed clothes. When I come back, you _will_ explain why you were on the third floor and what the hell you thought you were doing at midnight by the Trophy Room when I explicitly told you not to." He motioned them to sit down by the fire while he walked upstairs. It took him five minutes to change and come back down before settling down in one of the chairs.

"Now, I'll ask each of you, individually, why you were where you were," Josh said, putting away his wand. "Neville?"

"I, er, kinda forgot the password and fell asleep in the middle of the corridor." Josh sighed to himself before pulling out a piece of paper from the desk.

"I wrote this so that I could memorize the passwords, but you need it far worse than I do. They are in order by week. If I find out you lost it, I will staple it to your forehead so that you never lose it." Neville swallowed the lump in his throat before nodding. "Go on to bed then." Neville didn't need anything more said to him before he dashed up the staircase into the boys' dorm.

"Okay, Ron," he said with a smirk. "I'm going to guess that your reason is the same as Harry's. Am I correct?" Ron nodded nervously. "Very well. Harry. Care to explain it to me?"

Harry bit his bottom lip before explaining everything. From worrying about him not returning to asking Ron to help him out. Josh shook his head as a chuckle rose from his throat. When Harry stopped speaking, he could tell that Josh wasn't mad at him. A little upset, of course, but not furious.

"Listen to me, Harry. I'm almost twelve years old. I can take care of myself. You, on the other hand, took a huge risk going to the showers to try and find me when every instinct you've got should have told you not to worry. While I admire your reaction, you must understand that there is more at stake for you here. If you leave, you might very well be stripped of your ability to use magic, your memories of your time in Hogwarts. Everything. I, on the otherhand, could be homeschooled by my mom if I get kicked out of Hogwarts, which I would never let happen in the first place. You don't have any living witches or wizards in your family. Just Muggles."

Harry's head fell. "Like I said before, Harry. I'm touched you'd risk everything for me, but sometimes you've got to trust me to know what I'm doing." Harry nodded, a smile shining on his face. "Go on. You and Ron must be exhausted. I'll bring you some breakfast and whatever mail you both get in the morning."

Harry and Ron rushed upstairs before closing the door to the boys' dorms. He looked at Hermione, who opened her mouth to explain, but Josh held up his hand. "I told you so. Without someone with above average intelligence, they would have been caught."

Hermione blinked at him. "You meant..."

Joshua nodded. "Of course. If you didn't cast the Unlocking Spell, then Harry, Ron, and Neville would have been brought back to Professor McGonagall with me and I would have to explain how three first year students snuck out of their rooms when Filch had been told by Malfoy that Harry and I were supposed to be dueling in the Trophy Room."

"How did you know..."

"...that Harry and Ron would come try and find me," Josh finished, annoying Hermione slightly. "I had an idea that they would. Harry and I have become closer ever since we met in Diagon Alley. Almost like brothers, I guess you could say. When one brother gets worried about the other, they naturally have an urge to seek them out. It's our version of Twin Telepathy, if you had to compare it to anything else."

Hermione nodded, accepting the answer with ease, but something was still bothering her. "I saw something while we were in that corridor, underneath that dog's feet. I think it was a door." Joshua nodded, filing that information away for later.

"Listen, Hermione," Josh started with a small smile. "I'm sorry for missing our little study date. Maybe we can have better luck tomorrow before Charms class. What do you say, Hermione? Give me another chance?"

Hermione was giggling. The reason was because Joshua was casting the Puppy Dog Eyes Charm on her. Eventually, she nodded, though that was shortly after she took control of her laughter. She truly enjoyed spending time with him as of late. The more they spoke, the more she laughed, and the more she wanted to see him.

As he waved her off to bed before heading to his own shortly after, her thoughts would float back to him.


	4. The Night of the Terrible Trial

**Guardian Mage**

**Written By: Rave Rose of Twilight**

**Warning: I don't own Harry Potter. I may have bought the books and movies, but I don't have the rights to it...yet. *begins making time travel device***

Chapter Four: The Night of the Terrible Trial

Malfoy couldn't believe what he was looking at. Harry and Joshua were still at Hogwarts the next day, looking tired, but happy. Indeed, by the next morning Harry and Ron thought that meeting the three-headed dog had been an excellent adventure, and they were quite kene to have another one like it. In the meantime, Harry filled Ron in about the package that seemed to have been moved from Gringotts to Hogwarts, and they spent a lot of time trying to figure out what could possibly need such heavy security that they would have moved it not long before Gringotts was robbed.

"It's either really powerful or really dangerous," reasoned Ron.

"Or both," said Harry.

The only thing they all knew for certain was that it was about two inches long and they didn't have much of a chance of guessing what it was without more clues.

Neither Neville nor Hermione showed the slightest interest in what could possibly rest underneath the dog and the trapdoor. All Neville cared about was never going near that great beast again.

Hermione was now refusing to speak to Harry and Ron, but she was such a bossy know-it-all that they saw this as an added bonus. All they really wanted now was a way of getting back at Malfoy, and to their great delight, just such a thing arrived in the mail about a week later.

Joshua was drinking his coffee, not even looking at the incoming mail as the owls quickly flooded the Great Hall. His mind was more on his 'study date' with Hermione and couldn't help but smile. They talked about various charms and spells that Professors Flitwick and McGonagall could possibly teach them next. Everyone's attention was caught in an instant when twelve owls carrying two long, thin packages came into the hall. Harry seemed to be just as interested as everyone else, if not more so when he noticed that one of the owls was Hedwig while another was Vega. When they dropped the packages to their recipients, Joshua raised a hand while sipping his coffee and grabbed the handle of his package. Harry, unfortunately, had to suffer a loss of his bacon, when the package impacted the table.

Said bacon pieces were now afixed to Malfoy's brow where there would normally be a pair of blond eyebrows. There was much laughter. Following the package was a small letter.

Harry ripped open the letter first, which was lucky because it said:

DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE.

It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't want everybody knowing you've got a broomstick or they'll all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the Quidditch field at seven o'clock for your first training session.

Professor M. McGonagall

Harry had difficulty hiding his glee while Josh seemed to be doing it with ease. Harry quickly passed the note to Ron, allowing him to read it.

"A Nimbus Two Thousand," Ron silently moaned in envy. "I've never even _touched_ one."

Joshua showed his letter to Hermione before motioning her to follow him. When she argued that he shouldn't be getting rewarded for breaking the rules, he argued that he was helping a student by keeping his property safe. Hermione wanted to say something, but found his logic solid. She didn't like it, but she couldn't fault Harry or Joshua for what they did. As Joshua and Hermione walked back to their common room, they could see Malfoy standing halfway across the entrance hall, barring the way upstairs with Crabbe and Goyle's bodies.

Malfoy tried to seize the package...until he felt his wrist lock and Josh was grabbing it rather firmly.

"What's in those packages you got that's so important," Malfoy demanded before a shooting pain erupted from his wrist when Joshua twisted it sharply, keeping it from breaking completely while putting enough pressure for the pain to be felt.

"It's none of your business, Malfoy," Joshua growled darkly, scaring Hermione, Harry, and Ron just a bit more than normal. "After what you tried to do to me and Harry last week, I have no second thoughts about making sure there's a permenant bed in the hospital wing waiting for you. Lucky for you, though, I can be quite forgiving. If you leave now, I promise not to break every bone I can find in your bodies until the teachers find the three of you...or at least what's left of you."

Crabbe and Goyle looked like they'd seen a ghost while Malfoy looked like he was about to piss himself. "Just as a quick point of reference for the future, my father was in the Brittish Marine Corps. He taught me everything I know from tactics to beating someone down without leaving a mark, if I wished to."

Terrified of the implications the young wizard's information, the trio of Slytherins scurried off.

"Are you four all right," asked Professor Flitwick, appearing from around the corner.

Joshua smiled kindly to the Charms teacher. "Of course, Professor. Just taking...extra precautions to keep everyone else from knowing what's in these packages."

The teacher chuckled to himself. "Of course. Professor McGonagall told me about your special circumstances. What model are they," he whispered.

"Nimbus Two Thousand. If not for Malfoy in the first place, we'd never have gotten this opportunity in the first place."

"Indeed." Professor Flitwick turned around to head back to the Charms classroom. "Threatening another student is against the rules, Mr. Kingsford."

"Who said I was threatening? I was merely making him a promise and giving him some information to think over the next time he tried to bully either me or my friends." Flitwick nodded, chuckling a bit more.

"Indeed. Have a good day, Mr. Kingsford, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger."

The four nodded to the teacher before continuing on their way to the Gryffindor common room.

After a while, they went back to classes. Harry had a tough time keeping his mind on the lessons. It kept wandering up to the dormatory where his new broomstick was lying under his bed, or staying off to the Quidditch field where he'd be learning to play that night. He bolted his dinner that evening without noticing what he was eating, a first for him, and then rushed upstairs with Ron to unwrap the Nimbus Two Thousand at last.

Joshua was already sitting on it, hovering in the common room while reading his Herbology book to himself.

"Wow," Ron sighed, as the broomstick rolled onto Harry's bedspread.

Even Harry, who knew nothing about the different brooms, thought it looked wonderful. Sleek and shiny, with a mahogany handle, it had a long tail of neat, straight twigs and Nimbus Two Thousand written in gold near the top.

As seven o'clock drew closer, Harry and Joshua left the castle and set off in the dark toward the Quidditch field. They'd never been inside the stadium before. Hundreds of seats lined the stands around the field so that the spectators were high enough to see what was going on. At either end of the field were three golden poles with hoops on the end. They reminded Harry of the little plastic sticks Muggle children blew bubbles through, except that these were about fifty feet high.

All too eager to fly again, Harry mounted his broomstick and kicked off from the ground. What a feeling – he swooped in and out of the goal posts and then sped up and down the field. The Nimbus Two Thousand turned wherever he wanted at the gentlist touch.

Joshua laid his stick on the ground before mounting it and telling it to lift him up. He shot around the field, much like Harry, but was doing tricks from jumping to dodging before he thought to try some parkour moves. He jumped off before hooking his legs on the handle, making sure to keep the broom level as he did curl ups and swinging around like a gymnast.

"Hey, Potter, Kingsford, come down!"

Oliver Wood had finally arrived followed closely by Fred and George. He was carrying a large wooden crate under his arms. Harry landed next to him while Joshua floated down with practiced ease.

"Very nice," Wood said, his eyes glinting. "I can see what McGonagall meant...you really are naturals. I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you'll be joining team practice three times a week."

He opened the crate. Inside were four different-sized balls.

"Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers."

"Three Chasers," Harry repeated to himself, as Wood took out a bright red ball about the size of a soccer ball.

"The Chasers throw the Quaffle and put it through the hoops to score," Harry recited from what Josh had told him, looking at Wood to see if he was correct. Wood looked stunned. "So – that's sort of like basketball on broomsticks with six hoops, isn't it?"

"What's basketball," Wood asked curiously.

Harry sweatdropped. "Never mind."

"Now, there's another player on each side who's called the Keeper – I'm the Keeper for Gryffindor. I have to fly around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring."

"Three Chasers, one Keeper," Harry told himself, determined to remember everything. "And they play with the Quaffle. Okay, got that. So what are they for." He pointed at the three balls left inside the box.

Kingsford picked up a small club, a bit like a short baseball bat. "I'll show you what the Bludgers do," Wood said. "These two are Bludgers."

He pointed out two identical balls, both jet black and slightly smaller than the Quaffle. Harry noticed that they seemed to be straining to escape the straps holding them inside the box. Josh looked over to him. "You may want to get over by Fred and George for this demonstration, Harry. Getting hit by one of these has been known to give wizards concussions."

Harry nodded. Wood looked at Joshua, who gave him a firm nod. He bent down and freed one of the Bludgers.

At once, the black ball flew high in the air and then pelted straight at Josh's face. Josh waited for the right moment before swinging the club and knocking the ball back into its socket where Wood restrapped it in with a fair bit of difficulty.

"See, Harry," said Josh. "The Bludgers rocket around, trying to knock players off their brooms. That's why you have two Beaters on each team – we only have three because the Weasley twins have a habit of either getting detention before the game. It's their job to protect their side from the Bludgers and try and knock them toward the other team. So – think you got all that?"

"Three Chasers try and score with the Quaffle; the Keeper guards the goal posts; the Beaters keep the Bludgers away from their team," Harry said with his eyes closed.

"Very good," Wood said. "There may be hope for you yet, Potter."

"Er – have the Bludgers ever killed anyone," Harry asked, hoping he sounded offhand.

"Not at Hogwarts. We've had a couple of broken jaws, but nothing worse than that. Now, the last member of the team is the Seeker. That's you. And you don't have to worry about the Quaffle or the Bludgers -"

"- unless they crack my head open."

"Don't worry, the Weasleys are more than a match for the Bludgers and Kingsford seems to be rather capable at handling them too."

"The three of us are regular Bludgers ourselves, Harry. Don't forget what I did to Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy since we started." Harry nodded. He knew Josh had his back.

Wood reached into the crate and took out the fourth and last ball. Compared to the last three, it was tiny, about the size of a golf ball or a large walnut. It was bright gold and had tiny fluttering silver wings.

"_This,_" Wood said, "is the Golden Snitch, and it's the most important ball of the lot. It's very hard to catch because it's do fast and difficult to see. It's the Seeker's job to catch it. You've got to weave in and out of the Chasers, Beaters, Bludgers, and Quaffle to get it before the other team's Seeker, because whichever Seeker catches the Snitch wins his team an extra hundred and fifty points, so they nearly always win the game. "That's why Seekers get fouled so much. A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught, so it can go on for ages – I think the record is three months, they had to keep bringing on substitutions so the players could get some sleep."

"Well, that's it – any questions?"

Harry shook his head. He understood what he had to do all right, it was doing it that was going to be the problem.

"We won't practice with the Snitch yet," Wood said, carefully shutting it back inside the crate, "it's too darkm we might lose it. Let's try you out with a few of these."

He pulled out a bag of ordinary golf balls out of his pocket and a few minutes later, he and Harry were up in the air, Wood throwing the golf balls as hard as he could in every direction for Harry to catch.

Harry never missed a single one, and Wood was delighted. After half an hour, night had really fallen and they couldn't carry on. Harry looked over at Josh and George as Fred directed them through various maneuvers that made the young wizard dizzy and thankful he was the Seeker. Fred blew a whistle and motioned for the two to come down.

"Good job, everyone. With these two on the team, we can't lose," said George to the group.

"That Quidditch cup'll have our names on it this year," said Wood, filled with joy. "I wouldn't be surprised if you turn out better than Charlie Weasley. He could have played for England if he hadn't gone off chasing dragons."

Later on at the castle, Harry had been surprised when he discovered he'd been at Hogwarts a full two months. With all the homework and Quidditch practice three days a week, it had been difficult keeping track of the date. Already, Hogwarts was starting to feel like home compared to Privet Drive ever had.

Then again, he supposed, anything was better than living with the Dursleys except for living with the Malfoys.

On Halloween morning, the smell of baking pumpkins and holiday treats ran through the castle like a wildfire in the forbidden forest. Even better was that Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, thought they were ready to make objects fly, something they'd all been dying to do since he made Neville's toad zoom around through the air. The professor had put them all into pairs. Harry was placed with Seamus Finnigan while Ron was placed with Hermione. Joshua had been placed with Neville, much to the young boy's relief.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing," Professor Flitwick called to the students. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important too – never forget Wizard Buruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and wound up on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."

It was a rather difficult spell. Harry and Seamus had swished and flicked their wands at the feather they were supposed to send soaring in the sky, but nothing happened. Seamus got so impatient, he prodded the feather with his wand...and ended up blowing off his eyebrows.

Ron, at the next table, wasn't having as much luck.

"_Wingardium Leviosa,_" he shouted, waving his arm like a windmill.

Joshua sighed to himself before repeating the incantation more patiently. "_Wingardium Leviosa._" With a flick of his wrist, he had inadvertantly caught both his own and Neville's feathers to rise after Neville had decided to just give up on the Levitation Charm. At the same time, Hermione had been telling Ron what he was doing wrong and corrected him, sending her feather flying as well.

Professor Flitwick sputtered and most of the class was wide eyed and open jawed. "Well done! Everyone see here, Miss Granger and Mr. Kingsford have done it!"

By the end of class, Ron was in a fowl mood.

"It's no wonder no one but Josh can stand her," he said to Harry as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor, "she's a nightmare, honestly."

Someone knocked into Harry as they hurried past him. It was Hermione. Harry caught a glimpse of her face and was shocked to see she was in tears.

"I think she heard you."

Someone else shoved past the two, smacking Ron upside the head before turning around. Josh was standing there, glaring at him. "You may not like her, Ron, but she was just trying to help you out. If you weren't being such a git to her, you might have made another friend." Josh spun around and walked as fast as he could toward wherever Hermione went, leaving the two wizards feeling somewhat ashamed.

Hermione didn't turn up for the next class and hadn't been seen all afternoon. Joshua refused to speak to Ron, which terrified the young boy after seeing what Josh was capable of when he was their way to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, Harry and Ron overheard Parvati Patil telling her friend Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls' bathroom and wanted to be left alone. Harry looked around everywhere, but didn't see Joshua after he left immediately after the bell rang to probably search for Hermione some more.

Ron looked a lot more awkward after hearing this, but the moment they entered the Great Hall, where Halloween decorations put Hermione out of their minds. Thousands of bats flew from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in large black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins sutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.

Harry was just about to help himself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll – in the dungeons – thought you ought to know."

And he sank to the floor in a dead faint.

There was an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.

"Perfects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormatories immediately!"

Percy was in his element.

"Follow me! Stick together, first years! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now. Make way, first years coming through! Excuse me, I'm a perfect!"

"How could a troll get in," Harry asked as they climbed the stairs.

"Don't ask me, they're supposed to be really stupid," Ron said. "Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke."

Harry shook his head. They passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions. As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Harry suddenly grabbed Ron's arm.

"I've just thought – Hermione and Josh."

"What about them?"

"They don't know about the troll."

Ron bit his lip.

"Oh, all right," he hissed. "But Percy'd better not see us."

Downstairs, Joshua was running through the castle corridors toward the girls' bathroom. If a girl didn't want to be found by someone that upset them, that was where, he would have imagined, they would go first. As Josh approached the door, he could hear a low grunting sound coming from around the corner. An awful smell filled the air just as he ran into the girls' bathroom. He knocked on one of the doors, knowing the sound would carry through. "Hermione," he whispered as loud as he could.

"Josh," he heard, followed by sniffling. "What are you doing here? This is the girls' room."

Josh rolled his eyes. "I know that, but something odd's going on. I heard something growling in the halls and a putrid smell filled the air. We've got to get you back to the dorms."

"I'm not going. Ron was right."

"No he wasn't," Josh growled. "He was being a twit. He doesn't know you. If he got the time to know you, he'd see exactly what I see. A beautiful, intelligent woman who simply wants to help others and be recognized as a person rather than a know-it-all pest."

Hermione sniffled a couple of times before coming out from the stall she was hiding in. Then...all hell broke loose. A giant club was swung through the wall, destroying the sinks and several stalls. Hermione screamed in fear.

"Stay here," he told her. "Keep your wand ready just in case he comes back for more." Running outside, he could see the giant troll standing in front of him. Looking around, he picked up a sword belonging to one of the fallen suits of armor before jumping back a few times. Josh saw Harry and Ron, staring up at the terrifying creature as it approached Hermione. Josh readied the blade and lashed out, carving a deep gash into the creature's abdomin.

A roar of pain and it turned its sights on Joshua, the wound on his gut already beginning to heal slowly. "Confuse it," Josh shouted, watching as Ron picked up a fallen tap and beaned the creature. Joshua waited for it to turn to Ron predicably before charing over and cutting at its calf. The creature roared in pain again before swinging his club at the 'swordsman' while his back was turned. It hit, sending him flying down the corridor. He grunted in pain before standing back up.

His eyes grew dark as a fire lit itself. He turned next to him, spotting Peeves hiding in the wall. "Peeves! Go get the professors and tell them there's a troll by the girls' bathroom on the third floor!" Peeves nodded before phasing through layers of wall and into the dungeon.

Joshua placed his hand hesitantly over his heart as a memory flashed to the forefront of his mind.

_Flashback..._

_He stood there, his mother standing in front of him and a stone wall she conjured with magic stood strong behind her. "All right. I think it's time you learned my own personal charm. It's powerful and will help you when you find yourself in trouble, but the side effects are terrible."_

_A seven-year-old Joshua nodded. "The spell is called _Iverda Nexime_. You must place your hand or point the tip of your wand at your heart and say those words. This will channel magic into your heart and muscles, making you stronger than most people will ever become. However, it only lasts fifteen minutes and after those fifteen minutes, your muscles, including your heart will tear. If you use this enough times, your muscles will eventually tear themselves apart and your heart...will explode. You will only be using this spell once under my supervision. You are only to use this in emergencies. Am I understood?"_

"_Yes, momma."_

"_Good. Then cast the charm and punch the wall with everything you've got."_

_Josh nodded before placing his hand over his heart. "_Iverda Nexime!_" Magic coursed through his muscles and he could feel the power flowing through his veins. Without wasting a moment, Joshua ran up and punched the wall as hard as he could. His fist passed through it like butter, leaving the wall intact, but a giant hole in the middle._

_Flashback End..._

Josh swore never to use it unless it was an emergency...and this was an emergency. He placed his hand over his chest, feeling the beating of his heart and the blood flowing through his veins. "_Iverda Nexime!_" The ground around him felt like it was shaking and the power from before seemed to have doubled since he last used the spell as a kid. His eyes were void of any life. All there was now...was a fire that needed to be quenched.

To Harry and Ron, they saw him mutter something under his breath before he disappeared. The beast before them roared in pain as several deep lacerations appeared within the span of thirty seconds. The beast swung his club wildly, but missed and was greeted with a sharp kick to the gut, forcing him to bend over and gather his breath.

Harry ran over to Hermione and tried to shake her out of her fear-striken state. The club slammed dangerously close to the two before a slash to his wrist forced the beast to release his weapon. Ron, thinking quickly, drew his wand and waved it like they practiced in Charms. "_Wingardium Leviosa!_"

The club flew up into the air until it was directly above the troll...before it suddenly came crashing down on its head. Joshua walked over, his fifteen minutes feeling more like seconds, as he dragged the sword tiredly until he was right beside the unconscious troll's head. He looked at Harry and Ron before motioning them to Hermione. Harry covered her eyes with one hand while he covered his own with his other. Ron covered his eyes using both hands as they awaited what was about to happen next.

"I'm sorry."

That was the only sound they could hear before a squelch followed shortly by the sound of metal hitting the stone floor.

Harry got back to his feet. He was shaking and out of breath. Ron was standing there in a similar state, though they both stared at the troll with a sword piercing its skull and Josh, the former weilder of the blade was now sitting down in a pool of troll blood.

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the four of them look up. They hadn't realized just what a racket they had been making, but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll's roaring. A moment later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear.

Quirrell took one look at the rtoll, let out a faint whimper, and sat down on a toilet, clutching his heart.

Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Josh, Ron, and Harry. Harry had never seen her look so angry. Her lips were white. All hopes of winning fifty points for Gryffindor faded quickly from Harry's mind.

"What on earth were you thinking," she shouted, a cold fury reverbrating in her voice. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormatory?"

Snape gave Harry a swift, piercing look. Harry looked at the floor while Ron put his wand away.

Then, a small voice came out of the shadows.

"Please, Professor McGonagall – they were looking for me."

"Miss Granger!"

Hermione managed to get to her feet at last, but before she could speak, Joshua spoke up, struggling to get back on his feet. "She's right. The last time I saw her, she was running from Charms class, quite upset as something. My guess is that someone said _that_ term reffering to her lineage and she ran past me, Harry, and Ron crying. For a moment, I thought it would be best if she were alone to deal with it, but when she didn't show up for Herbology, I knew something wasn't right. So I went to search for her instead of going to the Great Hall. Had I known that a troll was loose in the castle, I would have carried Hermione back to the dorms, whether she liked it or not. We didn't know until he broke through the wall and we were forced to try and deal with it on our own. I asked Peeves to tell you that it was up by the girls' lavatory."

Joshua bit his bottom lip, knowing he'd be forced to tell everything eventually. "I...was forced to use a charm my mother taught me when I was a kid and Harry and Ron helped me take it down. I was the one who shoved the sword in its skull."

"And what charm," hissed Snape, "could have given you enough strength to pierce a troll's thick skull?"

"My mother created the charm herself. Contact her if you want to know. I promised her that I wouldn't share it with anyone and use it only for emergencies. The downside to the charm, however, I can tell you. It gives me fifteen minutes of unmatchable strength, but after those fifteen minutes, every muscle in my body tears. Including my heart." Professor McGonagall gasped. "If I use it too much, eventually, my muscles will tear apart and my heart will explode."

"That is...quite the risk you took, Mr. Kingsford." Joshua nodded. "As it stands, I will give Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Kingsford five points for service above and beyond what anyone could ask of a first year student. Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, please take Miss Granger back to the Gryffindor tower. I shall be taking Mr. Kingsford to the hospital wing where we will meet with Professor Dumbledore."

As Joshua placed an arm around Professor McGonagall's shoulder, the others watched as he was led away, followed by Snape and Quirrell. Nobody spoke to one another. Not even after they got back to the tower. Hermione went straight to her room after picking up a plate while Harry and Ron sat in the commons.

"How many times has Josh saved our asses this year," Ron asked, causing Harry to chuckle.

"Too many, if you ask me. I honestly think Hermione was about to lie to them about what happened if he hadn't stopped her."

"Good of her to try and get us out of trouble like that," the youngest Weasley admitted. "Mind you, we _did_ save her."

"She might not have needed saving if you hadn't said that stuff loud enough for her to hear you. Josh was right back then. You were being a total git. She only wanted to help you out."

After what would later on be labled as 'The Mountain Troll Incident', Hermione had become their friend. Sometimes, there are just things that you share with someone, accidentally or not, that makes you end up liking one another. In this instance, it happened to be fighting a twelve-foot mountain troll.


	5. Recovery on the Field

**Guardian Mage**

**Written By: Rave Rose of Twilight**

**Warning: I don't own Harry Potter. Don't make me keep telling you.**

Chapter Five: Recovery on the Field

As the school entered November, the weather turned colder than most were used to. The mountains around the school became icy and gray and the lake was like frozen steel. Every morning, the ground was painted with a fresh layer of frost. Word spread through Gryffindor tower about what happened on Halloween and Josh had received many well-wishers from the first year students all the way up to a few of the seventh year students. Cards and flowers of all shapes and sizes were placed at his bedside. Somehow, Wood and the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team had managed to get him a Bludger pillow almost three times the size of a normal Bludger that he was currently using.

It was now November the first and he was resting by his bedside when he heard the door leading up to the hospital wing open up. It was Hermione. She'd been coming up whenever she could either to give him the homework from the classes he missed or to just sit down and talk.

They never talked about the accident. That suited him just fine. He had killed that troll. While most would herald it as a feat of bravery, he knew better. He knew that if that creature woke up, it wouldn't hesitate to attack...to kill. He slew the dumb creature because it would eventually kill again if allowed to go free and he didn't want to take that chance.

Hermione slipped into the somewhat comfortable chair beside his bed and looked at the ground as though it were suddenly interesting. "I'm sorry," she said in a grim tone. Joshua raised his eyebrow. "If I hadn't run off after what Ron said, then you'd -"

"Did you know, Hermione, that my father had told me two things before he passed," he said suddenly, taking Hermione's concentration away. "He told me Semper Fidelis and Carpe Diem. Always faithful and seize the day. The motto of the Brittish and American Marine Corps. Never leave a man behind and live every day to its fullest. If I'd have left you there, I'd be disrespecting my father's sacrifice and dishonoring what being a Gryffindor means to me."

Joshua smirked to himself. "Besides, I can't die just yet. I'm still a virgin and I've never gotten a chance to have my first kiss. Plus it's my -"

His voice was stopped...when she pressed her lips into his. His eyes were wide, but relaxed a bit as he went with it. Then the warmth of her lips caress was gone and he was brought back into reality. She smiled at him before saying, "Thanks a lot...and happy birthday."

She walked out of the room and shut the door firmly behind her. Joshua still looked rather shocked. His first kiss. Pleasant. Relaxing. Left him begging for another. Fleeting. He scoffed at himself. "Well, scratch first kiss off my list of things to do before I croak," he said to nobody in particular. Despite the way he sounded, he was floating on Cloud Nine.

He tried to move his body, starting by easing his legs off the bed. There was a little pain, but nothing he couldn't manage. He could feel the cold stone beneath his feet and he placed his full weight on them. That was when the pain shot through his body. He grunted, biting down on his lip. He didn't expect standing up to hurt so much, but he had to push through it. Standing still may have hurt, but moving was a complete and utter bitch. He looked over at Madam Pomfrey as she was doing her paperwork. Each step he took unleased a new level of pain he was slowly forcing out of his mind with minor success. He pulled on his pants, put on his shirt, and strapped on his boots before looking for the blood-soaked robe.

He imagined that Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey could only stand so much of the acrid smell before having it washed. Before he knew it, he was already downstairs and everyone walking between classes, the Great Hall, and the dorms was looking at him. Watching as every move he made caused him to flinch. He forced himself through the crowds, though some people seemed to move out of his way. Almost half an hour later, Joshua Kingsford was standing in front of Professor McGonagall's office.

He knocked on the door and only opened it after hearing her 'pleasant' voice call, "Enter."

Standing in the middle of her office, Joshua cleared his throat before giving her a cheesy grin. "Say, Professor. When can I get back to class?"

He'd never forget this moment. When Professor McGonagall would be sputtering, trying to think of something to say. "Mr. Kingsford," she said, clearly astonished at the sight she was seeing now. "Your muscles were practically torn to shreads! You shouldn't be up right now!"

"Well, I'm feeling a bit better. Nothing a little walk can't fix up," he said. "Besides, if I did what everyone told me to do, then I wouldn't be able to play in this month's Quidditch match against Slytherin."

"But you're not completely healed," she said firmly. "You're lucky you didn't die because of the strain using that spell put on your body!"

"It's why my mom told me to only use it in emergencies and saving my friend from a rampaging troll seemed to fit within the context of emergency," he said in an equally firm tone. "Besides, Gryffindors stick together and we never leave a man behind. I wasn't going to sacrifice Hermione just so I could live."

McGonagall sighed to herself. If he was just as stubborn as his mother, which he was already proving to be, then there would be no harm in sending him back to classes and Quidditch practice. She nodded to him. "Very well. You will return to classes tomorrow. I expect you to not overwork yourself at Quidditch practice, though. No strenuous activity barring light exercise until I deem you fit enough to play. Am I understood?"

Joshua gave a mock salute. "Of course, ma'am. By your leave?" She nodded, shooing him away as he closed the door.

As he walked down the corridors, you could tell that, aside from a minor amount of pain, Joshua was feeling better than ever. When he walked up to the Fat Lady's portrait, he could see her smiling at him. "Welcome back, Mr. Kingsford. Password?"

"Pig snout. And it feels great to be back, my fair Lady." The Lady blushed before opening up to reveal a crowded common room. The normally boisturous noise was now a simmering whisper as he walked through the portal. When he placed his feet on the ground of the common room, he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. "Home sweet home."

Everyone in the common room congratulated him, but that soon ended when he saw three surprised faces staring right at him. Harry was the most astonished one, though Ron was a close second. He didn't know what was happening until Harry crashed into him, wrapping him in a fierce hug. Josh flinched a bit, but returned it with ease. Ron was next, though he settled for a handshake.

Hermione was the last to walk up to him. She looked like she had just seen a ghost. "But I just saw you -" she said, trying to think of something to say. Josh's smile softened.

"I spoke to Professor McGonagall not long ago," he said. "She said I'm clear to go back to classes tomorrow and that I can only start back on practice after she and Madam Pomfrey have cleared my physical health."

She was still speechless. She shook her head, knowing just how stubborn Josh could be, before wrapping him in a hug of her own. "It's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back, Hermione," he said calmly before releasing his hold on her. The first thing he saw when he looked around was an empty armchair that called out to him. As though on auto-pilot, Joshua's feet led him to the empty chair where he sat down as gently as he could. A sigh of contentment washed over him. Everyone was congratulating him...but all was for naught.

Hermione, Ron, and Harry approached the chair and heard soft snoring coming from the young wizard. "He's...asleep?"

Hermione giggled to herself, causing the two young boy's attention to land on her. "Well, when I was visiting him early on in the day, he was complaining about not being able to fall asleep because the mattress was too lumpy. I guess anything would be more comfortable than that bed in his mind." Ron rolled his eyes while Harry just smiled.

Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking the rules than before since Josh, Harry, and Ron had saved her from the mountain troll. She turned out much kinder for it as well. The day before Harry and Josh's first Quidditch match, the four of them were in the middle of the frozen courtyard, though Joshua actually said that he enjoyed the chill compared to the other three, during break, and she had conjured them up a bright blue fire that could be carried in a jar. They were standing with their backs to it, getting warm, when Snape was spotted limping toward them. Harry, Ron, and Hermione moved closer together while Josh simply stood next to Harry. They were trying to block the fire from Snape's view, knowing fairly well that it was probably against the rules. Unfortunately, something about their guilty faces caught Snape's eye. He limped toward them and started looking for a reason to tell them off.

"What's that you've got there, Potter?"

It was a book called _Quidditch Through the Ages_. Harry showed him.

"My mother had sent a copy to him last night, Professor Snape," Josh said, his mind going a mile a minute trying to think of an excuse. "When she heard that he was interested in learning how to play Quidditch, she sent one over. I hope there's no rule against it."

Snape sneered in his general direction. "No. There isn't, though I do wish to inform you that library books are not allowed outside of the school." Snape limped away as Harry and the others watched him limp away.

"You know he just made that rule up," Harry muttered before reopening the book. "Nice save, by the way. I didn't think it was humanly possible to lie so well."

Josh smirked. "It's only a lie if it isn't true. Truth is, mom did send you a copy of the book. It just hasn't arrived yet."

"Remind me to thank her later," Harry said with a contented smile on his face.

"Why do you think he was limping," asked Hermione, looking just a bit curious.

"Dunno, but I really hope it hurts."

Josh's eye narrowed at Snape's retreating form.

The Gryffindor common room was noisier than ever that evening. Harry, Ron, Josh, and Hermione sat together next to a window. Hermione and Josh were checking Harry and Ron's Charms homework for them. They would never allow them to copy from their own homework ("How will either of you learn anything by cheating?"), but by asking them to read it through, they got the answers right anyway.

Harry was feeling restless. Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall hadn't given Joshua his physical yet to find out if he was ready to play Quidditch. He'd been working out everywhere far more than usual. He'd gone out jogging around the castle, doing push-ups in the common room, sit-ups using his broom to keep him off the ground, and lunges down the corridors. If anything, he was in better shape than before. Getting up, he told Ron and Hermione he was going to look for Professor McGonagall to ask if she could give Josh the all clear to play Quidditch.

Ron and Hermione nodded together.

He quickly began to make his way to the staffroom and knocked. There was no answer. He knocked again. Again. Nothing.

Maybe he should just go in and ask for Professor McGonagall or Madam Pomfrey? It was worth a shot. He pushed the door open and peered inside – and a horrible scene met his eyes.

Snape and Filch were inside, alone. That by its self seemed to scream 'RUN' to him, but Harry looked closer. Snape was holding his robes above his knees and one of his legs looked bloody and mangled. Filch was handing the slimy professor a set of bandages.

"Blasted thing," he growled. "How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?"

Harry tried to shut the door quietly, but -

A hand wrapped itself around his mouth and pulled him around the corner. Harry looked up, afraid it was one of the teachers that caught him, but it was Josh. He placed a finger up to his lips. Harry nodded.

Snape looked toward the door that creaked and saw nothing. He released hold of his robes before storming toward the opening and peered in both directions down the corridor. Nobody was there and there was naught a sound being made. After checking one last time, Snape walked out of the staffroom and limped briskly back to his office.

Joshua released his hold on Harry's mouth. Harry looked up at him with a questioning gaze. "Where were you?"

"The hospital wing. Professor McGonagall cleared me for tomorrow's game," Josh said firmly. "What were you doing in by the staffroom?"

"I was going to ask Professor McGonagall to give you your checkup, but she wasn't there," he said. "I did, however, see and hear the reason why Snape was limping though. Did you?"

Josh nodded. "Yeah. Must've had a run in with that cerberus." Harry raised an eyebrow. "A three headed dog? That's the proper name for it. Its owner may have given it a name, but his type is a cerberus." Harry opened his mouth, but Josh held his finger to his lips. "Let's continue this conversation upstairs, Harry. I'm sure Hermione and Ron would love to hear this too."

Harry nodded and the two raced upstairs as fast as they could.

The moment they ran into Hermione and Ron, they told them what they had discovered.

"You know what this means," Harry finished, trying to catch his breath. "He tried to get past the cerberus at Halloween! That's where he was going when we saw him – he's after whatever it's guarding! And I'd bet my broomstick _he_ let that troll in, to make a diversion!" Hermione's eyes were wide, but Joshua was looking at it from a different point of view.

"Maybe not, Harry," he said, earning questioning glances from the trio. "According to you, Professor Snape was in the Great Hall the entire time."

"Besides – he wouldn't," Hermione said, backing Joshua up on this. "I know he's not very nice, but he wouldn't try and steal something Dumbledore was keeping safe."

"I swear, Hermion, you think all teachers are saints or something," said Ron, snapping at the young witch. "I'm with Harry on this one. I wouldn't put anything past Snape. But what's he after? What's that dog guarding?"

Harry didn't care at that moment any more. All he knew was that he was tired and asking questions wasn't going to do him any good if they couldn't produce any answers. Walking upstairs, he could already hear Neville snoring. He lay down in his bed, hoping and wishing for sleep to claim him, but it wouldn't. He tried to clear his mind – he needed to sleep, he had to sleep, his first Quidditch match was in a few hours – but the look of Snape's mangled leg wasn't easy to forget.

Ron decided to follow Harry's lead. He wanted to be wide awake when it came time for Harry to show his stuff on the field. As strong and cunning as Josh was, there was little doubt in his mind that his performance would be spectacular. It was mostly Harry he worried about. He never even heard about Quidditch until he stayed with Josh and his family.

Everyone else was in bed except for Joshua and Hermione. Joshua was standing in front of the fireplace, simply watching as the wild flames licked at the bricks around it. Hermione had stayed behind. She wanted to tell him and Harry that she was wishing them good luck, but Harry had gone straight to bed.

After she kissed Josh at the hospital wing, she wasn't sure what to think anymore. He was her friend. Her first friend and probably her closest one. She told herself it was just a birthday present, but she always second guessed herself about it. What other reason did she have to kiss him when he was at his most vulnerable? Was it because he saved her from the troll? She shook those thoughts from her mind. There were too many variables and she didn't have enough information.

Joshua smiled as he watched the fire. The warmth they carried and the life it brought to the bitter cold of the room. Tomorrow would be a day of proving for him. He had to do this. He needed to know how to be normal after what had happened on Halloween. He never liked the thought of fighting, but he had to know in order to defend himself when he was without his wand. He killed the troll. He hated himself for doing it, but knew that he had no other choice. Whether by the hands of the professors or by his own, the troll had trespassed on the school grounds and was to be treated as an enemy long before he launched his first attack.

Hermione walked closer to the fires, craving the warmth they held and radiated. She bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes as the radiant fires reheated her body. "Josh," she said, catching his attention in an instant, "can you do me...a favor tomorrow?"

Josh looked at her from the corner of his eye and nodded. "Of course, Hermione."

"Can you try not to get hurt again," she said quietly. "When I went to visit you...after you were admitted, I never want to see you that vulnerable again."

Joshua stayed silent. Hermione turned and started to walk up to the girls' dorm when he finally spoke up. "Don't worry about me, Hermione. I don't plan on ending up in the hospital again for a long time. Besides, now I've got a reason to come back in one piece." Hermione stopped dead in her tracks.

"And what's that, if you don't mind me asking," she said in a cocky tone.

"I don't feel quite like telling you just yet. Maybe I'll tell you...or maybe you'll find out on your own. Either way, you will know eventually." Joshua walked up the spiraling staircase leading to the boys' dorm. "Good night, Hermione."

"Good night, Josh."

With that said, the two finally went to bed. One with a casual smirk on their face while the other's was contorted in confusion.

As the sun rose above the horizon, the students could feel the chill hanging in the air. The Great Hall was filled with the delicious smell of fried sausages and the cheerful chatter of everyone looking forward to a good Quidditch match.

"You need to eat some breakfast."

"I don't want anything."

"Just a bit of toast," whined Hermione.

"I'm not hungry."

"Regardless, you need something in that stomach of yours unless you want to see what you ate last night come back up," called Josh, munching casually on some fried eggs. "Doesn't have to be much. You don't need to stuff yourself until you burst."

Harry grumbled. He'd been feeling nasty the past hour or two. In an hour, he and Joshua would be walking onto the Quidditch field.

"He's right, Harry," called Seamus Finnigan. "You'll need your strength. Seekers are always the ones who get clobbered by the other team."

"Thanks, Seamus," muttered Harry. It felt like everyone was against him on this subject.

"Don't worry though, Harry. George and I will keep anyone coming too close off of you with a couple of Bludgers to the head." Hermione glared at him. "Or the leg. Or the arm. Or even their broom, though I don't think anyone will be too kind if we destroy the brooms before next years first years get to learn to fly." Hermione nodded before going back to her meal.

By eleven o'clock the entire school seemed to have gathered out in the stands around the Quidditch pitch. Many students had binoculars or were using their telescopes. The seats may have been raised high into the air, but it was still hard to see any action sometimes.

Ron and Hermione joined Neville, Seamus, and Dean up in the top row. As a surprise for Harry and Josh, they had painted a large banner on one of the sheets Scabbers had ruined. It said 'Potter for President. Kingsford for Vice President'. Dean, being rather good at drawing, painted a large Gryffindor lion underneath. Hermione followed this up with a charm that allowed it to flash different colors.

Meanwhile, in the locker room, Harry and the rest of the team were changing into their scarlet Quidditch robes (Slytherin would be playing in green).

Wood cleared his throat and everyone grew silent.

"Okay, men," he said firmly.

"And women," said Chaser Angelina Johnson.

"And women," said Wood in agreement. "This is it."

"The big one," said George Weasley.

"The one we've all been waiting for," said Josh from directly beside George.

"We know Oliver's speech by heart," Fred said to Harry. "We were on the team last year."

"Shut up, you two," growled Wood. "This is the best team Gryffindor's had in years. We're going to win. I know it." He finished this with a nasty glare that spoke of many things that could happen if they lose.

"Right. It's time. Good luck, all of you."

Harry followed George and Josh out of the locker room and, hoping his knees weren't going to give away, walked onto the field to loud cheers.

Madam Hooch was the referee. She stood in the middle of the field waiting for the two teams, her broom in hand.

"Now, I want a nice fair game, all of you," she said once both teams' players were around her. Harry seemed to notice she was speaking particularly to the Slytherin Captain, Marcus Flint, a sixth year. Harry thought Flint looked as if he had some troll blood in him, but Joshua looked just as fierce and actually used it to his advantage by cracking his knuckles and popping the bones in his neck, causing many Slytherins to flinch a bit. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the banner made by Hermione, Ron, and Dean fluttering in the breeze. His heart skipped a beat or two. He felt a lot braver than before.

"Mount your brooms, please."

Harry and Josh climbed aboard their Nimbus Two Thousands while everyone mounted their own brooms.

Madam Hooch gave a loud blast from her whistle and the fifteen brooms went flying high into the sky. The game had finally begun.

"And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor – what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too -"

"JORDAN!"

"Sorry, Professor!" 

The Weasley twins friend, Lee Jordan, was doing the commentary for the match, closely watched by Professor McGonagall.

"And she's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver Wood's, last year only a reserve – back to Johnson and – no, the Slytherins have taken the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes – Flint flying like an eagle up there – he's going to sc- no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryffindor Keeper Wood and the Gryffindors take the Quaffle – that's Chaser Katie Bell of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Flint, off up the back of the field and – WOW! Nice save by Gryffindor's newest Beater, a first year by the name of Joshua Kingsford! That Bludger almost nailed Katie in the back of the head. Kingsford's recently coming back from an injury sustained by that troll Halloween night that tore apart almost every muscle in his body, yet he still has the strength to play! What a sport! Bell's being followed closely by Slytherin Chaser Adrian Pucey, but she narrowly avoids having the Quaffle ripped from her hands. She shoots! GOAL! GRYFFINDORS SCORE!"

Gryffindor cheers filled the air as Katie Bell flies over to high five Josh for the save. The Slytherin's begin to moan and hiss.

"Budge up there, move along."

"Hagrid!"

Ron and Hermione squeezed together to give Hagrid enough space to join them.

"Bin watchin' from me hut," he said, patting a large pair of binoculars around his neck. "But it isn't the same as bein' in the crowd. No sign of the Snitch yet, eh?"

"Nope," said Ron. "Harry hasn't had much to do yet, but Josh just saved Katie from a nasty Bludger upside her head. Bloody wicked block, if you ask me."

"Kept outta trouble, though, that's somethin'," said Hagrid, raising his binoculars and peering skyward at the speck that was Harry.

High above the battle and gameplay, Harry sat on his broom, squinting about for some sign of the Snitch. This was part of his and Wood's game plan.

"Keep out of the way until you catch sight of the Snitch," Wood had told him. "We don't want you attacked before you have to be." He also told him that Joshua would be keeping a special eye on the Bludgers that came after him when he took off after the golden orb while George would have to do double duty until the Snitch was caught.

When Katie had scored, Harry had donw a couple of loop-the-loops to let off his feelings. Now he was back to staring around for the Snitch. Once he caught sight of a flash of gold, but it was just a reflection from George's wristwatch, and once a Bludger decided to come pelting his way, more like a cannonball than anything, but Harry dodged it followed by Joshua before he pelted it at the Slytherin Captain, nearly hitting him in the chest until he barely managed to avoid the blow.

Josh was smirking when Marcus Flint turned his glare at him. Josh told him to sit and spin...using his hands.

"KINGSFORD!"

Everyone in the Gryffindor stands was laughing while a few of the teachers were either appauled at the trick or hiding their laughter as best they could.

"All right there, Harry," he said in full confidence. Harry nodded, a bit shocked that Josh did what he just did.

"Slytherin in possession," Lee Jordan yelled, "Chaser Pucey ducks two Bludgers, a flying Weasley, Beater Kingsford, and Chaser Bell, and speeds toward the – wait a moment – was that the Snitch?"

A whisper ran through the crowd as Adrian Pucey dropped the Quaffle, too busy looking over his shoulder at the flash of gold that passed his left ear to see Joshua deliver a flying boot to his face. Gryffindor cheered again as Pucey fell only to regain control of his broom about fifteen feet from the ground before shooting up.

Harry saw it. In a great rush of excitement he dived downward after the golden streak. Slytherin Seeker Terence Higgs had seen it, too. Neck and neck they hurtled toward the Snitch – all the Chasers seemed to have forgotten what they were supposed to be doing as they hung in midair to watch.

Harry was clearly faster than Higgs – he could see the little round ball, wings fluttering like a hummingbird, darting up ahead – he put on an extra spurt of speed when -

WHAM! Right in front of his eyes, Josh had barreled just ahead of him and he saw Marcus Flint get knocked into the stands by a shot to the head from the young Beater's club.

"GO, HARRY! END THIS NOW," Josh shouted as Flint rushed toward him. The two titans were slugging it out until a final punch nailed Flint in the stomach, taking the wind from his lungs, and allowing Joshua's next blow, a kick to the face, knock him to the ground with his broom following close behind.

Harry nodded and rushed off toward the Snitch's final position, but it vanished. Josh stood on his broom, looking down at Marcus with disgust in his eyes. "Nobody fucks with my friends. Not while I still breathe."

Madam Hooch was looking for a way to foul someone, but by protecting Harry, Joshua had gotten rid of a potential foul.

Lee Jordan was finding it hard not to take sides.

"So – after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating -"

"Jordan," growled Professor McGonagall.

"I mean, after that open and revolting foul -"

"_Jordan, I'm warning you._"

"All right, all right. Flint almost killed the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, but Beater Kingsford prevents any foul while also knocking a bit of sense into Chaser Flint, saving his fellow Gryffindor from a nasty hit."

In the confusion, Spinnet puts the Quaffle through the hoop without any trouble and Gryffindor maintained possession. By now, most of the Slytherin team looked down right terrified of attempting another foul as they watched Flint get back up on his broom and taking off.

It was as Harry dodged another Bludger, followed by George this time, that it happened. His broom gave a sudden, frightening lurch. For a split second, he thought he was going to fall. He grabbed hold of the broom as tight as he could with both hands and knees. He'd never felt anything like this before in his life.

It happened again. It was as though the broom was trying to buck him off. But Nimbus Two Thousands didn't suddenly decide to buck their riders off. Harry tried to turn back toward the Gryffindor goal posts – he had half a mind to ask Wood to call time-out – and then he realized that his broom was completely out of his control. He couldn't turn it, direct it, or anything else. It was zigzagging through the air, and every now and then making violent swishing movements that almost unseated him.

Lee was still commentating.

"Slytherin in possession – Flint with the Quaffle – passes Spinner – passes Bell – hit hard in the face by a Bludger sent at him by Kingsford, hope it rebroke his nose – only joking, Professor – Slytherins score – oh no..."

The Slytherins were cheering. No one seemed to have noticed Harry's broom was acting strangely except for Josh, who looked around for a wand or something. He spotted two things that irritated him the most. Professor Quirrell was staring at Harry, his eyes never blinking, while Snape was beside him, also staring at Harry, but mumbling some incantation. Josh's eyes narrowed. Someone was trying to curse Harry and he knew only one way to stop it. He jumped on top of his broom and skated toward Harry, his hand glowing a deep silver and red.

"Dunno what Harry thinks he's doing," mumbled Hagrid. "An' Josh is chargin' right at him. If I didn't know better, I'd say he'd lost control of his broom...but he can't have..."

People were suddenly pointing at Harry and Josh, wondering what was about to happen. Without warning, Josh's glowing hand was placed against Harry's head. "_Protego!_"

A blue aura radiated from Joshua and Harry, blinding many of the spectators and causing them to avert their eyes. Hermione was the first to recognize the spell as the Shield Charm, used to reflect or counter any spells directed against the user.

"I understand what Josh was doing," shouted Hermione excitedly. "He thought there was a spell being used against Harry or his broom, so he used a wandless Shield Charm to remove it."

"You mean someone here might have been cursing Harry's broom," asked Ron, mouth agape in shock and slight revoltion. "Who could have done such a thing during a Quidditch match?"

"I don't know, but Josh had to have seen something to make him think someone was cursing him."

Out on the pitch, Harry had finally gotten control of his broom. Joshua was looking at him firmly. "Get the Snitch now, Harry. We're down twenty to sixty. We need that Snitch."

Harry nodded before remounting his broom and zoomed off toward the Snitch. He dove harder than he'd ever done before and as he reached out, he felt something smack into his broom, sending him flying again. As Harry rolled on the ground, he looked to be choaking until something popped out of his mouth when Josh gave him a firm smack to the back of his head.

Flint was cursing everyone and everything when a 'rogue' Bludger crashed into his ribs, sending him to the ground. Everyone looked at Josh, who'd suddenly lost his club. "What? I didn't do it." Gryffindor was cheering and Jordan was shouting the victory for Gryffindor. One hundred and seventy to sixty. Harry held the Snitch above his head.

Hours later, he, Hermione, Ron, and Josh were having a cup of strong black tea in Hagrid's hut.

"It was Snape," blamed Ron. Hermione and I barely saw it before that flash, but he was muttering something under his breath. Cursing your broomstick. He couldn't take his eyes off you."

"Neither could Professor Quirrell," said Joshua firmly. "One would think he'd have been too scared to show up at a match known to be rather violent, but he was staring dead on at Harry. Looked like he was focusing on something as he was looking at you too, Harry. I told you he's been giving me these weird feelings."

"Rubbish," Hagrid said firmly. "Why would either of 'em do somethin' like that?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were looking at one another, wondering what to tell him when Harry decided to tell him the truth.

"I found out something on Snape," he told Hagrid. "He tried to get past that cerberus on Halloween. It bit him. Messed his leg up pretty badly. We think he's trying to steal whatever its guarding."

Hagrid dropped the teapot.

"How do you know about Fluffy," he demanded. Joshua raised his eyebrow slightly.

"_Fluffy?_ You named a cerberus _Fluffy?_"

"Yeah – he's mine – bought him off a Greek chap I met in the pub las' year – I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the -"

"Yes," Harry said eagerly.

"Now, don't ask me anymore," Hagrid said firmly. "That's top secret, that is."

"But Snape's trying to _steal_ it."

"Rubbish," he said again. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"So why did he just try and kill Harry," cried Hermione.

This evenings events certainly changed Hermione's mind about Snape quite a bit.

"I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid, I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all. I saw him!"

"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong," shouted Hagrid. "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all four of yeh – yer meddling' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledor an' Nicholas Flamel -"

"Aha," said Harry, happy to have yet another clue to put into the mystery. "So there's someone called Nicholas Flamel involved, is there?"

Hagrid looked furious with himself. "I shouldn' a said that."


	6. The Mysterious Mirror of Erised

**Guardian Mage**

**Written By: Rave Rose of Twilight**

**Warning: I don't own Harry Potter. I'm getting really tired of saying this so many times.**

Chapter Six: The Mysterious Mirror of Erised

It was almost Christmas time and Hogwarts was abound with activity. Most of it being from students heading home for Christmas Vacation. Joshua was stuck between whether he wanted to go home or stay and watch after Harry and Ron. Harry was already dedicated to staying at Hogwarts and Ron was also planning on staying. Hermione was going home in a few days to spend some time with her Muggle parents. He was confused about the whole thing and he didn't want to see Harry, Ron, or Hermione so that they didn't unintentionally influence his decision. Neville told him that Hermione was worried about him, having not seen him since December the fifth.

He still went to classes and saw his friends there, but after the classes were over, he'd seemingly disappear around the corner. He'd been to the library, researching more charms and spells for him to practice. He got lucky with that Shield Charm, a fourth year level spell that not even most wizards and witches at the Ministry of Magic can produce. After the Quidditch match against Slytherin, Professor McGonagall had asked him where he learned how to use the Shield Charm.

"I was so far ahead of the class, I thought I'd look in the library for something a little more challenging," he told her honestly. Professor McGonagall acknowledged his point. She knew the various information the books in the Hogwarts library contained and also understood that this was done by a first year student with a high learning curve for Transfiguration and Charms. Even his Herbology and Potions were getting rather high marks. His weakest point seemed to be in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but even there he excelled. The only other student who seemed to grasp the D.A.D.A. better was Harry Potter, his best friend.

But none of that mattered right now. As he laid in one of the armchairs, he looked into the flames of the fireplace. His face was stony and unreadable. Nobody who took a sparing glance at him would know what he was thinking about or how he felt. As his thoughts ran, he knew he'd already made his decision. He pulled out a couple of small, neatly wrapped boxes. No single box looked the same and the wrapping paper used was made with a Silencing Charm so that nobody could shake it and guess what was in it.

For Hermione, he picked up the largest box and put it off to the side. For Harry, he lifted up the smallest box and looked at it as though looking through the package itself. He smiled gently to himself before placing it underneath the tree in Gryffindor tower. For Ron, he lifted up the medium sized box and placed it under the tree next to Harry's.

He looked at the multitude of gifts that lay beneath the tree and he knew his friends would be happy with their gifts. Inside each one was a card addressed to them. He wrote them the night before, but didn't slide them under the wrapping paper until he was sure with his decision a few hours ago. He looked down at each present one more time before nodding to himself and leaving for the train home. He'd spend Christmas with his family and enjoy the holidays before he buckled down and began his studies for the test that would bring him into his second year at Hogwarts.

As he picked up his present to Hermione, he turned around and walked to the library. Everyone was curious as to why Joshua was carrying such a thing, but decided it was best not to ask. As soon as he walked in, he could see Hermione sleeping with her face buried in a book. He chuckled to himself as he watched the girl gently snore away into the middle of a book called _Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century_, probably looking for the illusive Nocholas Flamel. He placed her present next to her and softly placed a label that read 'Do Not Open 'Till Christmas'.

As he walked out of the library, he could have sworn he heard Hermione call his name, but waved it off as a figment of his imagination before walking out the door and to the place where they would board the boats once again and travel home for the holidays. Vega was perched upon his shoulder, looking up at the owlery before turning his head back ahead of them.

Christmas came sooner than most would have believed. As Harry and Ron ran downstairs to get their presents, they felt a little off since Hermione decided to go home for the holidays and they hadn't seen or heard from Joshua in weeks. Harry grabbed two soft presents and looked at the names on them. He picked up the top most parcel read the little note that read:

To: Harry

From: Hagrid

It was difficult to read at first, but once he did, he opened it with haste. Inside was a roughly whittled wooden flute. Upon trying it out, he felt that it sounded like an owl.

A second parcel, much smaller than the rest was on top of the rest and on it...was another note.

_We received your message and enclosed your Christmas present. From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia._

Harry rolled his eyes upon seeing fifty pence piece on the back of the note.

"Thanks," he said in annoyance.

Ron, however, seemed facinated by it.

"_Weird,_" he said enthusiastically. "What a shape! This is _Muggle money?_"

"Keep it," Harry said happily. "It's barely enough to buy candy of any shape and size. So...my aunt and uncle and Hagrid – so who sent me these?"

Ron seemed to pale upon seeing two lumpy pink parcels. "I think I know who that one's from," he said in horror. "My mom. I told her you didn't expect any presents and – oh, no." Ron groaned. "She's made you a Weasley sweater."

Harry opened it to find a thick, hand-knitted sweater in emerald green and a large box of homemade fudge.

"Every year she makes us a sweater," Ron said before unwrapping his own sweater, "and mine's _always_ maroon."

"That's really nice of her," Harry said with a smile on his face.

The next present he opened was filled with Chocolate Frogs...from Hermione. There were only two parcels left. He opened one and noticed it felt very light. He unwrapped it cautiously.

Something fluid and silvery slithered onto the floor where it lay gleaming. Ron gasped.

"I've heard of those," he said in a hushed tone, dropping the box of Every Flavor Beans he'd gotten from Hermione. "If that's what I think it is – they're incredibly rare...and extremely valuable."

"What is it," he asked Ron. Harry lifted the silver cloth off the floor and felt as though he was holding water woven into fabric.

"It's an invisibility cloak," he said in awe. "I'm sure of it – try it on."

Harry threw the cloak around his shoulders and Ron gave a yelp.

"It is! Look down!"

Harry looked down only to see he was missing several body parts...mostly everything. Running to a mirror, he noticed that he looked like a floating head. Everything the cloak had covered had disappeared.

"There's a note," whispered Ron as loud as he could whisper. "A note fell out of it!"

Harry picked up the fallen note and began to read it. The handwriting was rather fancy and loopy. As he read over the note constantly, he read to himself:

_Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well._

_A Very Merry Christmas to you._

There was no signature. Harry stared at the note while Ron admired the cloak he wore.

"I'd give _anything_ for one of those," he said. "_Anything._ What's the matter?"

"Nothing," Harry said blandly. He felt...strange. Who had sent the cloak? Had it really once belonged to his father?

He grabbed his last present. This one was his, yet had no stamp saying it was. Ron picked up a similar gift and they opened them together. Harry looked down and saw a card fall. He ignored it for now in place of looking inside the small box. Inside...was a bottle filled with a black liquid that seemed to absorb all the light in the room and a pair of fingerless gloves. He looked at Ron, wondering if he got a similarly odd gift.

Ron opened his gift and saw a pair of gloves similar to Harry's own as well as an ornate-looking knife. Its blade what as white as the untouched snow and its handle was wrapped in dragonskin leather. It looked odd to the young wizard who had never even held such a weapon, but when he grasped its handle, it felt comfortable. Attached to the pommel was a seperate strap of leather attached to a sheath made of an odd wood with several designs around it. Ron strapped it to his waist and picked up the card.

Noticing Harry had done the same, they opened it together only to see nothing written on the inside. They were about to throw the cards away when they heard a voice.

"Hello, Ron. Hello, Harry," called the voice they now recognized as belonging to Joshua, their missing friend. "I'm sorry that I haven't been in contact with you since your latest discovery. It's just that I didn't want any of you to influence my decision on whether to go home or stay here." Harry's brow furrowed and Ron's ears grew red as anger flushed his face. "I wanted to stay, but I also wanted to see my family for Christmas. In the end, I decided to go back home for the next few weeks until classes started back again. I take it that you both opened your presents and are wondering just what they are any why I gave them to you."

Harry and Ron nodded to themselves. "Well, I had to ask my mother to buy them for me so that I could give them to you as gifts. Think of it as a gift from my family to my friends. In case you're wondering, I did give Hermione her gift before she left. By now, she's already opened it and is thinking of many ways to curse, jinx, or hex me as payback for abandoning the three of you...and I have to say I deserved it if she does. Well, onto the presents themselves."

"As you may have noticed," Josh said simply, "I've given you both a pair of fingerless gloves. I know that your search for this will eventually get you both into some sticky situations. These gloves were designed for multiple purposes. As they are now, you can use them as dueling gloves. They have a spell placed on them to change according to the wearer's situation. I'll let you figure out what other abilities they have."

"Now, for your individual gifts. Harry, I gave you a potion I created over the time I spent away from you. It took two weeks to brew into perfection, but it was worth it. This potion is called the Mist of Eternal Darkness. If ever you are seen by someone, you can smash this vial against the ground. When the liquid connects with the air, it will vaporize into a thick black veil that should confuse whoever saw you. This is a one-time use potion and I won't make it again unless I deem it necessary." Harry nodded to himself. Even when he wasn't here, Joshua seemed to do his best to help the errant young wizard-in-training.

"Ron, I know that the knife I gave you is...odd, to say the least. I had to specifically ask Professor McGonagall whether you could have it or not before I wrapped the present. After telling her what it was and what it was capable of, she agreed, though it was rather reluctantly. She did allow it...with a few restrictions. First of which is that you are to never use it outside of Potions class or Herbology, if you are harvesting herbs or other ingredients. The reason why...was so you don't 'accidentally' kill Malfoy or his friends. The second restriction...was that I had to teach you how to use it when I got back. Let's face it, we both saw this one coming. I'm sure even Harry saw it coming."

Ron, looking rather tweeked, looked at Harry, who nodded his head reluctantly. Ron's mood seemed to fall like a box full of bricks after being knocked off the roof of St. Mungo's. "Don't worry. While I don't consider myself a master by any stretch of the word, I do know how to use a knife properly whether it is being used in Potions, Herbology, or defensively should I be disarmed of my wand in battle. That knife is special, however, and I think you will find them quite helpful in the longrun. The maker of this knife informed me that it is capable of making such perfect cuts that it is capable of improving the results of ones potions. However, to do this, you need proper training and that is where I come in. Also, because the knife is made entirely of the fang of a dragon, it will not have any adverse reactions to some ingredients that oxidize when it comes in contact with metal."

Both Ron's and Harry's eyes widened and their jaws dropped to the ground. Ron placed the knife between his belt and his pants, securing it until Joshua could show him how to properly secure it. Such a knife had to be incredibly expensive and supremely rare. Ron shuddered to think of just how much his potions would improve with this knife being used to chop or grind his ingredients.

"Do not show it to Malfoy just to show off. That is incredibly irresponsible, not to mention reckless and dangerous. I'm entrusting you with this blade. Do not make me regret my faith in you. I will not hesitate to remove it from your possession if you prove my faith in you...misplaced."

Ron gulped. "I shall see you all in one weeks time. I'd appreciate it if you prayed to whatever diety you believed in that Hermione doesn't curse, jinx, or hex me into oblivion. Goodbye."

The cards seemed to implode upon themselves, leaving nothing behind to even acknowledge their existance. Ron and Harry quickly hid the knife and potion from the Weasley twins as they ran downstairs, making some joke about not forgetting their names before turning on Percy and forcing his Weasley sweater on him.

Christmas dinner was another new and joyous event for Harry. As they went into the Great Hall, they ate all sorts of Christmas delights from roasted turkey to cranberry sauce. After hours of celebration, including seeing a drunken Hagrid kissing Professor McGonagall, who blushed furiously after the whiskery kiss, they set off some Christmas crackers, special wizard firecrackers that gave you a variety of gifts. Harry had received a brand new wizard chess set, a Grow-Your-Own-Warts kit, and a pack of non-explosive, luminous balloons.

After the grand feast, Harry and Ron played a little in the snow before heading to the Gryffindor commons to get warm. Almost immediately after, having laddened himself full of food, Ron fell asleep in his bed while Harry played around with his father's cloak. This was likely the only momento of his parents that he would ever find. The words from the letter placed on the cloak seemed to reverbrate in his mind.

_Use it well._

Harry wanted to know about Nicholas Flamel and he knew only one place where he hadn't gone to that might have the information...

...the Restricted Section of the library.

Somewhere in England, Hermione was opening her presents when she saw the largest one she'd ever gotten in her life sitting underneath the tree. It was the one she found mysteriously tucked into her stuff at the library. Even the librarian didn't see who did it. As she unwrapped the gift, her eyes shone the instant she spotted a box. The faster she unwrapped, the more her eyes widened and a smile appeared on her face. When she finished unwrapping the gift, she turned around to thank her parents...only to see their confused appearance. The didn't know about the gift? Then who could have given it to her.

She looked down and saw the entire collection of Sherlock Holmes novels and stories. Poking out of the box was a single card. Hermione opened the card and began to read...until she saw that there was nothing to read. As she was about to dismiss the card, a voice from nowhere spoke up.

"Hello, Hermione and Mr. and Mrs. Granger," said the voice. Hermione's eyes widened and was mixed with joy...and raw, unbridled anger. "I expect Hermione already knows who I am simply by my voice, but I'll introduce myself you you both. My name is Joshua Kingsford and I am a friend and fellow student at Hogwarts with your daughter. I would say that it is a pleasure to meet you, but I'm afraid I cannot see you. Currently, I am spending the next week or two with my family. I know you are likely running through hundreds of curses, jinxes, and hexes to use on me when you see me next," Joshua said. Hemione was muttering something along the lines of 'You have no idea.' "I can't really blame you for wanting to and I won't hold it against you if you do choose to do something along those lines. The main reason I didn't talk to any of you three was because I didn't want you three to influence my decision on whether or not to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays. I wanted to visit my family, but knowing Ron and Harry's penchant for getting into trouble, I couldn't just leave them alone."

Hermione sighed to herself, her anger slowly ebbing away as she listened further. "I've given each of you a gift you might find useful in the future. Unfortunately, I didn't know what I could possibly give you that could help you any further. Ron and Harry's gifts were thought out well in advance, knowing their personalities as well as I do. You, however, are a mystery to me, Hermione. That is why I gave you the entire series of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. These books aren't magical nor will they help you in any classes, but it will challenge that mind of yours in ways you probably couldn't even imagine."

"Anyway, I doubt you or your family will want to hear me yammer on anymore, so I'll simply end our conversation here. I pray that all three of you enjoy your holidays and that you're happy with the gift I bought you. I'll see you soon. Goodbye."

The card floated away before imploding on itself, startling the two Muggles while making Hermione giggle a bit. The instant she heard Josh's voice, she'd been ready to kill him, but after hearing his explanation and seeing her gift from him right before her eyes, she couldn't be happier. She was still going to kill him. No doubt about that. She was just going to make sure it was as painless as possible.

As she contemplated the painless murder of her friend, she nearly jumped when she heard her father clear his throat. Looking back at her dentist parents, she could see them looking at her in curiosity. "Joshua Kingsford, huh," her father asked in a fairly gruff tone. "What's he like?"

Hermione blushed a bit before beginning to tell her parents the tale of Joshua Kingsford.

At the Kingsford residence, Joshua and Erica ran downstairs on Christmas morning and saw all kinds of gifts from their friends and family, even one or two from some of the teachers at Hogwarts.

The first gift he grabbed was from Ron. Upon opening it, he discovered it to be a wizards chess set with his very own chessmen. No doubt his mother would wish to be his first opponent. Harry had bought him a couple of Chocolate Frogs. He handed one to Erica and laughed as she tried to catch the errant delicious frog as it raced across the house.

After half an hour, Erica had chocolate all over her lips and hands and the left leg of the chocolate frog was still twitching from between her lips before she crunched down on that before swallowing.

Hermione, he discovered, had bought him a book called _1001 Ways to Curse Your Friends_. He was sure that the book was an omen of things to come and a chill raced down his spine. Upon opening the book, he noticed that the book's title was just a joke dust cover. After removing the cover, he learned the book was really called _101 Charms for All Occasions_. He'd have to thank Hermione later and pray the entire time he was away from Hogwarts that she would eventually forgive him.

Hagrid had given him a book called _Magical Creatures and the Ingredients They Are Famous For._ Joshua was sure to enjoy reading about all of the magical ingredients known to the wizarding world.

His sister had bought him a hooded jacket...just in case he ever got chilly and needed to warm up without needing to go inside. It was a deep gray color, but its design was to imitate a rhinoceros. Thankfully, there was no horn attached to it or other silly thing designers use to catch the eyes of kids. He put it on and felt incredibly warm. He thanked his little sister with a kiss on the forehead, making her squirm away and rub her forehead.

Professor Flitwick had given him a rather interesting book called _Advanced Charms for the Magically Gifted_. There was no doubt that he'd allow Hermione to borrow it from time to time...provided he was still alive long enough to do such a thing.

Professor McGonagall, someone that Joshua was sure had rarely ever given a student a gift for Christmas, had purchased him a book called _Wizard Chess: Best 10001 Matches Ever and the Strategies Behind Them_. This was probably the oddest gift he would receive on Christmas. He'd played many chess matches before, but Wizard Chess seemed to be a totally different game. He'd gotten a similar book that was available to Muggles about the best players from Bobby Fischer to Donald Byrne and other players from other countries.

The last gift was from his mother. She walked back to her bedroom before coming out a minute later with a dusty guitar case. Joshua knew immediately what it was and a small tremble forced its way through his hands before he firmly took hold of the leather case.

"Not long after I met your father, he told me that his father had passed down his old accoustic guitar. When he showed it to me, I knew immediately that there was no way for it to be repaired in the Muggle world," she said calmly. "So I went into Diagon Alley and visited a friend who owed me a favor. I asked her to make a new one that looked like the twin of the guitar I had given her. She took on the task. A week later, she told me that she enchanted it to be indestructable...so that later on, our grandchildren and their children would carry on the legacy. Your father knew it wasn't the same guitar that he showed me. He didn't speak to me for a week after I gave him the magical guitar."

Joshua nodded. His father had told him that, while it wasn't his grandfather's guitar that he passed onto his father and that his father passed on to him, that the tradition would start over with this new guitar, one that wasn't prone to age or wear and tear. It would eventually be left up to Joshua to carry on the tradition. Joshua opened the case and saw the beautiful guitar his father had told was his the week before his death. He took the guitar into his hands and strummed a few strings, enjoying the perfect tone that accompanied the strumming. It was untouched for years and this was the first time he'd held it in almost four years. Looking down into the case, he saw several sheets of music from a lot of professional artists whose songs he knew were some of his father's favorite. He replaced the guitar in its leather case before closing the latches.

Joshua shook the tears from his eyes before giving his mother a hug, thanking her for giving him the gift.

Harry was sneaking away from where he'd just heard Snape and Filch coming from. He lost track of which corridors he took, but it seemed that after a while, he couldn't hear their voices anymore. He looked around the room he was in and saw a giant mirror sitting in the corner. Desks were piled around him, but they seemed sturdy enough that they wouldn't fall. As he stepped in front of the mirror, Harry had to keep himself from screaming.

In the mirror's reflection stood almost ten different people, all of whom he was sure were deceased. Why did he come to that conclusion, you ask? Because at the very front of the ten were two figured he knew instinctively.

"Mom? Dad?" The two nodded to him sadly. He reached behind him, hoping that his parents were standing behind him, but he only felt air. Their reflections were so close to one another, yet that was all it was. A reflection. A single tear fell from his eye as his mother, a redhead with eyes similar to his own, placed her hand atop his reflection's head and smoothed it out...or tried to. The man beside her seemed to share his naturally messy hair.

He always wondered what his family looked like ever since he heard of them. His father seemed to chuckle to himself upon seeing the invisibility cloak discarded on the floor in a heap next to him. He wanted so much for this to be real that he almost wanted to stay there for all of eternity, but he knew better.

He brought Ron by the next day, but instead of seeing his family, he only saw himself holding the Quidditch cup and the House cup. The next day he visited, he'd had an unexpected visitor.

"So – back again, Harry?"

Harry froze where he was before looking behind him. Sitting on one of the desks...was Professor Dumbledore himself.

"I – I didn't see you there, sir."

"Quite strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you," Dumbledore said with a soft chuckle. Harry seemed to be relieved that Dumbledore was smiling. "So...you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."

"I didn't know that was what it was called, sir."

"But I expect you've already realized by now what it does?"

"It – well – it shows me my family -"

"And it showed your friend Ron himself as head boy."

"How did you know -?"

"I don't need a cloak to become invisible," he said gently. "Now, can you think what the Mirror shows us all?"

Harry shook his head, feeling rather foolish in front of the headmaster.

"Allow me to explain. The happiest man on earth eould be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, that is, he would look into it and see himself exactly as it is. Does that help?"

Harry thought for a moment before speaking up. "It shows us what we want...whenever we want..."

"Yes and no," the aged professor said quietly. "It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. You, who have never known your real family, see them standing around you. Ronald Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, sees himself standing alone, the best of all of them. However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men and women have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible."

Harry nodded to himself. "The Mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Harry, and I am asking you not to go looking for it again. If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared. It does not do well to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. Now, why don't you put that admirable cloak back on and get off to bed?"

Harry nodded before doing exactly as the professor asked. His mind was already filled to the brim with questions and he knew he wouldn't get any answers for now


	7. The Final Piece of the Puzzle

**Guardian Mage**

**Written By: Rave Rose of Twilight**

**Warning: I do not, nor will I ever, own Harry Potter.**

Chapter Seven: The Final Piece of the Puzzle

Dumbledore had convinced Harry never to go looking for the Mirror of Erised again. For the rest of Christmas holidays, the young wizard had been wishing to forget just what he had seen in the mirror, but found that he couldn't. Before long, he was having nightmares. Over and over, he dreamed that his parents had disappeared in a flash of green light, while a high, yet raspy voice cackled with laughter.

"You see," said Ron in a warning tone. "Dumbledore was right, that mirror could drive you mad."

Harry had been telling Ron about his dreams and Ron wouldn't let him go about it.

Hermione, who came back the day before term started carrying a sachel full of stuff from Christmas, took a different view of things. She was torn between horror at the idea of Harry being out of bed, roaming the school three nights in a row, and disappointed that he hadn't at least found out who Nicholas Flamel was.

Tonight was the day the term started, yet there were no signs of Joshua anywhere to be seen. As their first Herbology class was about to begin in the next hour or two, the trio could see Professor McGonagall walking toward them...followed by their missing friend. Hermione's face grew red with rage as she saw him casually walking along with a small, but noticable smirk on his face.

"YOU'RE LATE," she shouted, marching over toward him, her fist clenched in a fist the closer to him she got.

"I thought you'd have learned by now, Hermione," Josh said in a slightly taunting tone. "A good wizard is never early nor late. He arrives precisely when he is meant to and not a second sooner."

"Yes," Professor McGonagall said, speaking up a bit. "There was a bit of a fluke with the Hogwarts Express the other day after Miss Granger arrived and he had to board today." McGonagall turned to Joshua. "Well, I'll allow you to catch up with your friends since I have no doubt you all have a lot to talk about. Goodbye."

With that, Professor McGonagall turned and walked back to her office...leaving Joshua to the wolves, so to speak.

Josh could see just how angry his friend were and began to back away slowly. "So glad to see you guys again. It's felt like ages."

"Don't," warned Hermione, the glare she was doling out to the young wizard intensifying with each passing moment. "You've been avoiding us since two weeks before Christmas. I have every right to place a curse on you and I am very tempted to do so -"

Joshua sighed to himself. He knew this was going to happen and he knew he deserved what was probably going to happen. When Hermione stood face-to-face with him, he could already feel their noses touching, despite him being a few inches taller than her. His hazel eyes were looking into her chocolate brown eyes and he could see the twitch that lay beneath them.

"- but you won't," Joshua said. It was meant as a question, but turned out to be more of a statement. "Why?"

Hermione bit her lip a bit. Not enough to draw blood, but it was clear she was biting it. She wanted to say something, but held her tongue. She looked deeper into his eyes before huffing and storming away, a slightly pink tint running through her cheeks.

Ron raised an eyebrow. "What's her problem?"

Joshua's eyelids drooped a bit. "I don't know. Whatever it is, I think its best if we don't bother her about it." Ron nodded in an attempt to agree with him. To be honest, that girl was way too high maintenance for him. He was surprised that they even considered each other friends. Josh shook the darkness from his mind and looked to the two lone guys standing a little bit away from him. "So, how did your Christmas holidays turn out?"

Ron was the first to begin his rant. The only cool thing he got was the knife and gloves Josh had given to him as a gift. After showing the weapon to him, the young Kingsford wizard grabbed it by the handle and gave it a few test swings before returning it with the handle toward Ron.

"Yes. Good balance for a blade as light-weight as that one," Josh said in remembrance. "I did say I'll teach you how to use it properly, but the first thing I'll teach you is how to use it to chop up your ingredients. You are to never, EVER, draw it outside of a classroom unless you are in a life-or-death situation. I'll teach you on our days off near Hagrid's hut. I'd trust him to help me watch over your training."

Harry was next and when he heard that he almost used the potion to evade Snape, Filch, and Mrs. Norris, he'd almost had a heart attack. As long as that potion took to brew, he would definitly chew out the famous wizard-in-training. When he heard about the Mirror of Erised, however, his eyes narrowed. An object with that much power in it shouldn't be located anywhere near the students. Lord knows who'd run into it and misuse it. (*coughMalfoycough*)

After a few rounds of Wizard Chess with Ron, who had lost about 2 of every 3 matches they had, Harry had even less time to spend with his friends due to Quidditch practice. While Joshua was definitely being kept on the team, he would act as either Fred or George's reserves should one of them get hurt. Wood had him show up to about half of the practices. This made it a bit easier to teach Ron how to wield the knife.

It was on one of the practices that Harry came back looking grim. Ron and Josh were in the middle of a game of Wizard Chess, Hermione watching on at the various strategies being used, when Harry showed up.

Harry poked Ron's shoulder. "Hold on. I need to concen -" Ron caught sight of Harry's face. "What's the matter with you? You look terrible."

Speaking so quietly that nobody else could hear, Harry whispered. "There's a problem. Huge problem. Snape's the referee in our match against Hufflepuff."

Ron's and Hermione's eyes widened, but Joshua simply looked bored as he watched the chess board. Ron accidentally tipped over his king in the shock, getting Joshua's attention as they discussed different things to do.

"Don't play," Hermione said firmly and immediately.

"Say you're ill," came Ron.

"Pretend to break your leg," Hermione suggested.

"_Really_ break your leg," came back Ron.

"I can't," Harry said in defeat. "There isn't a reserve Seeker. If I back out, Gryffindor won't play at all."

Joshua sighed before opening his mouth, earning the attention of the trio. Before he could say anything, however, Neville came tumbling down into the common room. How he managed to climb through the portrait was anyone's guess, because his legs had been stuck together with what they recognized as the Leg-Locker Curse. He must have had to bunny hop the whole way to Gryffindor tower.

Joshua mumbled several curses, causing the four to blush a bit, before drawing his wand. Wordlessly, he flicked the reedwood wand at Neville's legs and everyone watched as they sprang open, allowing him to get to his feet trembling. As Hermione was about to speak, Josh held up his hand. "Let me guess, Neville. Malfoy was looking for an outlet and he saw you first."

Neville nodded sadly. "I was just leaving the library and he said he was looking for someone to practice it on."

"Go to Professor McGonagall," Hermione shouted in outrage. "Report him."

Neville shook his head again before mumbling, "I don't want more trouble."

"You've got to stand up to him, Neville," Ron said. "He's used to walking all over people, but that's no reason to lie down and take it."

"There's no need to tell me. I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor. Malfoy's already done that," Neville said between sobs. Joshua pulled out one of the Chocolate Frogs he'd been carrying around and handed it to Neville.

"If the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor, it must have seen something inside of you to place you there," said Joshua calmly while Neville ate the chocolate creation. "If it wanted to, it could have placed me in either Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, but it didn't. It landed me in Gryffindor and I couldn't be happier. You just have to look deep inside your heart and find out what the Sorting Hat saw in you and capitalize on it."

"Yeah. I was almost in Slytherin, if you'd believe that," called Harry from his other side. "Instead, I was put in Gryffindor. Besides, you're worth twelve of Malfoy."

"Now that's just cruel," Josh said mockingly. "You think people like Malfoy have worth? I'm just stunned. People like him are a dime a dozen. Someone who surrounds himself with idiots to make himself look smarter and flaunts his family name like it was gold when it's not even worth the shirt on my back."

Neville's lips twitched until a soft smile formed on his face. "Thanks, Josh. Thanks, Harry...I think I'll go to bed...D'you want the card, you collect them, don't you?"

Harry looked down at the card and saw Dumbledore smiling back at him.

"Dumbledore again," he said. "He was the first one I ever -"

He gasped before flipping over the card. Harry looked up at Hermione and Ron with a smile on his face.

"_I've found him_," he whispered. "I've found Flamel! I _told_ you I'd read the name somewhere before, I read it on the train coming here – listen to this: 'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, _and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicholas Flamel_'!"

Hermione leapt to her feet. She hadn't looked so excited since they'd gotten back the marks for their very first piece of homework.

"Stay there," she said suddenly as she sprinted up the stairs to the girls' dormatories. Harry and Ron barely had time to exchange mystified looks before she was dashing back, an enormous old book in her arms. Joshua's eyebrow shot up slightly. The thing had to weigh a ton. Hermione either had to be really strong despite looking rather scrawny...or she used her mind and a bit of magic to make the book weigh less.

"I never thought to look in here," she whispered excitedly. "I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading?"

"_Light_," Ron said in disbelief.

Joshua shrugged his shoulders a bit, shaking off the shock with ease. "Well, some people like to read in bed. Apparantly, Hermione is one of them."

Hermione silenced them both with a glare, though when it landed on Joshua, it grew heavier and harsher than with Ron. Ron and Harry's eyes widened. They had long since forgiven Josh for his discression, though Hermione must still feel furious after he didn't tell her. She was silently muttering to herself as she flipped through pages until she found what she was looking for.

"I knew it! I _knew_ it!"

"Can we speak now," Ron asked grumpily. Hermione ignored him.

"_Nicholas Flamel_," she whispered dramatically, "is the _only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone_!"

While Ron and Harry looked stupified, Josh's eyes widened to epic proportions.

"You mean to tell me...that Nicholas Flamel created the one thing thousands of men sought to create? The _Cursed Stone_ itself?"

"The what," asked Harry and Ron.

"The Sorcerer's Stone, also known as the Philosopher's Stone, is an item that many wished to create. It was told that with it, you could turn metal into pure gold and the holder of the stone could create with it an elixer that would make the drinker immortal."

"Yes. Nicholas Flamel is currently six hundred and sixty-five and his wife, Perenelle, is six hundred and fifty-eight," said Hermione, reading from the last bit of the paragraph involving Flamel. "It's why we couldn't find him in _Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry_. He's not exactly recent being almost six hundred and seventy years old."

Harry and Ron retired for the night, heading up to their room before shutting the door. Josh was about to head up with them, but Hermione grabbed his arm, forcing him to stay. Josh looked up pleadingly to Ron, who looked at Hermione, shivered, before locking the door behind him.

"Joshua Kingsford," Hermione said, causing Josh to feel even more fearful. She'd never used his full name. He must be in it deep. "We've got some things to discuss."

"Did I forget to mention just how beautiful you look right now," Josh said, hoping to stall for time. "When the moonlight hits your face just right, you seem to shine brighter than any star I've ever seen."

Hermione's glare only worstened. "Flirting isn't going to work on me this time," she growled. Josh raised an eyebrow, though it was unnoticed. His flirting worked on her?

"I plead the fifth?" Hermione shook her head.

"I had to tell my parents about you after your little card started to talk," she said dangerously.

Josh raised an eyebrow. "That's it? You had to tell your folks about me? I thought this was about leaving without telling you guys."

"No, though since you brought that up..."

"I already told you why I did it," he said, looking off to his side and avoiding her glare. "I wanted to tell you guys, but if I did, I felt that I'd end up staying instead of spending a little time with my family. Being the only guy in a family of two girls...makes it kinda hard to tell them I'm staying here for the holidays and leaving Ron and Harry here by themselves was just asking for trouble. I really wanted to talk to you about it, but I didn't want any of you to influence my decision."

Hermione huffed, but her glare did seem to ease up a bit. "My parents wanted to know everything about you. What you looked like...how we met," she said in a hushed tone, knowing that Ron and Harry wouldn't pass up a chance to get something to blackmail Joshua with. "I told them how the teachers find you brilliant. How you stood up for Ron and Harry...and how you saved my life."

Joshua stood still before closing his eyes as images of the sword he'd used and the feeling of his muscles tearing apart with every move he made. The most prevalant images were when he shoved the sword through the troll's thick skull...and when Hermione kissed him on his birthday.

"I see," he said simply.

"They think we're dating," she said quietly. Joshua smiled softly.

"Is that such a bad thing," he asked her.

"No, but..."

"...but we just started school and we barely know each other?"

Hermione glared at him in annoyance, but that look resolved itself faster than her glaring. "Is it so wrong that we think like this," she asked him.

"I'd be lying if I told you that the two of us going out never occurred to me," he said in a hushed whisper. "I don't know. We've only known each other for a few months now. Maybe it's just me, but I think that I'd like to get to know you better before being comfortable telling anyone we're thinking about going out. Lord knows Harry and Ron would think I'm a raving lunatic for thinking about going out with you, much less considering it."

Hermione nodded in acknowledgement. "Yeah. I'd be comfortable with that arrangement. Of course, we'll go out on small dates. Nothing serious, though. Mostly as friends." Joshua nodded in acceptance of the terms, but wasn't expecting her to run into his chest and wrap her arms around his waist. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and began to rub her back.

"Sounds like fun," he said with a soft chuckle before separating themselves from one another. She seemed to shiver slightly, missing his warmth already. "Come on now. We've got to get to bed. We've got Defense Against the Dark Arts. Hopefully, Professor Quirrell won't pass out mid-lecture again like he did before Halloween."

"Of course," she said quickly. "See you tomorrow, Josh. Sweet Dreams."

"Only when I dream of you," he said before opening the door to the boys' dorm and closing it behind him. He walked past Harry and Ron's beds and threw himself into his own before falling into a peaceful sleep.

The next morning, they were all sitting in Defense Against the Dark Arts while Professor Quirrell was explaining different ways to treat werewolf bites, Harry and Ron were discussing what they'd do with a Sorcerer's Stone. Between Quirrell's stuttering and Harry and Ron's discussion, Joshua could even hear himself think.

As he was prepared to stand up and shout something so absolutely outrageous that most of the class would either faint or pass out from mental overload, he heard Harry tell Ron and Hermione that he'd be playing in the next game.

"If I don't, all the Slytherins will think I'm just too scared to face Snape. I'll show them...it'll really wipe the smiled of their faces if we win."

"Just as long as we're not wiping you off the field," said Hermione and Josh together, shocking Ron and Harry.

"Seriously," Ron whispered to Josh. "Can you read minds or something? That's starting to really freak me out."

Joshua simply shook his head. "No."

The bell rang and classes were finally over.

As the match drew closer, however, Harry's nervous reactions became more apparent, despite what he told Ron, Hermione, and Josh. The rest of the team wasn't too calm, either. The simple idea of overtaking Slytherin in the house championship was wonderful. No one had done it in seven years, but would they be allowed to with such a clearly biased referee?

He wasn't sure what to make of things now, either. Everywhere he went, whether alone or with his friends, Harry always seemed to run into Snape's ugly mug wherever he went. Potions, he knew, was even more unbearable. Despite Snape finding fewer and fewer things to torture Harry with, he would always nitpick about some small thing that, in the end, didn't affect his potions at all. Harry dared to say that with Joshua's careful instructions before and after class, Snape was barely able to find anything wrong anymore. He often wondered whether Snape knew they had found out about the Sorcerer's Stone or not. Harry didn't think he did, but then the unusual thought that Snape could read minds would pop into his head. Maybe it was Joshua's discussion on the basics of how he reads other people's body language that made him think such things.

Outside of the locker room, Ron, Joshua, and Hermione had wished him good luck the next afternoon. Joshua gave him a bit of chocolate to steady his nerves before telling him, "End this match as quickly as you possibly could. The longer it goes on, the more chances Snape will get to pick on Gryffindor and steal our points."

Harry nodded in acknowledgement. Those were just about the same words Wood told them during practice the night before and Josh hadn't even been there for that practice. Harry got into his Quidditch gear before picking up his Nimbus Two Thousand.

Ron and Hermione, meanwhile, had found a place in the stands next to Neville, who couldn't understand why they looked so grim and worried, or why they both brought their wands to the match.

Little did Neville know that Ron and Hermione had been practicing the Leg-Locker Curse in secret. They'd gotten the idea from Malfoy using it on Neville, and were prepared to use it against Snape if he showed any sign of wanting to hurt Harry.

"Don't forget," she whispered to Ron. "It's _Locomotor Mortis_."

"I _know_," snapped Ron. "Don't nag."

Looking around, however, neither of them could see Joshua anywhere in the stands. Did he go into the locker room to prepare to substitute or was he talking to a teacher? Hermione shook her head. She decided to focus on Snape and Harry. As they looked on the field, Ron was the first to notice Snape looking like he swallowed a rotten lemon as the players swarmed the field.

"I've never seen Snape look so mean," he said to Hermione. "Look – they're off. Ouch!"

Someone had poked Ron in the back of the head. It was Malfoy.

"Oh, sorry, Weasley, didn't see you there."

Malfoy grinned broadly at Crabbe and Goyle.

"Wonder how long Potter's going to stay on his broom this time? Anyone want a bet? What about you, Weasley?"

Ron didn't answer; Snape just awarded Hufflepuff a penalty because George Weasley had hit a Bludger at him. Hermione, who had all her fingers crossed in her lap, was squinting at Harry. He circled the field like a hawk, looking for the Snitch.

"You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team," said Malfoy loudly a few minutes later, as Snape awarded Hufflepuff another penalty for no reason whatsoever. "It's people they feel sorry for. See, there's Potter, who's got no parents, then there's the Weasleys, who've got no money – you should be on the team, Longbottom, you've got no brains."

Neville went bright red but turned in his seat to face Malfoy before a gleam of bravery entered his eyes the instant he spotted a familiar someone walking up the steps and heading toward them...with a large acoustic guitar strapped to his back.

"I'm worth twelve of you, Malfoy," Neville said without stammering or stuttering.

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle howled with laughter, but Ron, still not daring to take his eyes off the game, said, "You tell him, Neville."

"Longbottom, if brains were gold, you'd be poorer than Weasley, and that's saying something."

Ron's nerves were already stretched to the breaking point with anxiety about Harry...until a familiar voice rang through their ears.

"Have any of you heard the story of El Kabong," called Joshua casually. Malfoy turned around, his face pale in fear. His face met the body of Joshua's guitar. "KABONG!" Malfoy fell down the stairs, blood pooling from his nose while Joshua's guitar appeared untarnished and in perfect condition. Joshua looked at Crabbe and Goyle...who were quivering in fear, much like Draco. "Anyone else want to hear more about El Kabong?"

Crabbe and Goyle ran down, picked up Malfoy, and brought him to the Slytherin side of the stands.

"Bloody nice timing," said Ron quickly, turning toward Joshua as his muscles relaxed when Malfoy and his gang were gone. "Where'd you get the guitar from?"

"Christmas present," he said simply. "It also has an indestructable charm placed on it so that no matter who I hit with it or how much time passes, it will never break. This also means that when Malfoy tells the nurse or teacher how he broke his nose, there won't be any proof, right?"

Hermione, Neville, and Ron nodded enthusiastically. Suddenly, Hermione spotted Harry diving. "Ron," she shouted. "Harry -"

Ron looked over at Harry as he flew past Snape. Harry stopped his dive and raised his hand in triumph. The Snitch was clutched in his hand and didn't look to be going anywhere.

The stands erupted in applause and cheers; it had to be a record or something, no one could remember the Snitch being caught so quickly.

"The game's over! Harry's won! We've won! Gryffindor is in the lead," Hermione shrieked before spinning around and hugging Joshua with everything she had.

Harry jumped off his broom, a foot from the ground. He couldn't believe it. He'd done it – the game was over; it didn't even last more than five minutes. As Gryffindors came spilling onto the field, he saw Snape land nearby, white-faced and tight-lipped – then Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up into Dumbledore's smiling face.

"Well done," the aged professor said quietly, so only Harry could hear. "Nice to see you haven't been brooding about that mirror...been keeping busy...excellent..."

Snape spat bitterly on the ground, but the Gryffindors and Harry honestly didn't care to see him throw a tantrum...or if they did, they were enjoying what they were seeing.

Harry left the locker room alone some time later, to take his Nimbus Two Thousand back to the broomshed. He couldn't even remember feeling happier. He'd really done something to be proud of now – no one could say he was just a famous name any more. The enevning air had never smelled so sweet.

As he walked over the damp grass, he saw Joshua hanging out in the distance with Hermione. He ignored them. The two often spent quite a lot of time around one another by themselves. Sometimes, they would spend time in the library or the Great Hall. There was also the rare occasion that they would spend a day outside of the castle, simply sitting down and enjoying the simple things in life.

Right now, they appeared to be walking slower back to the Great Hall for some dinner. As his mind refocused on the match, Snape always seemed to come to the forefront of his mind.

Speaking of Snape...

A hooded figure darted swiftly down the front steps of the castle. Not wanting to be see, it walked as fast as possible toward the forbidden forest. Harry's victory faded from his mind as he watched. He recognized the figure's prowling pace. Snape, sneaking into the forest while everyone else was at dinner – what was going on?

Harry jumped back on his Nimbus Two Thousand and took off. Gliding silently over the castle he saw Snape enter the forest at a run. He followed.

Joshua and Hermione spent some time in the library tonight. Hermione wanted to study a few books...to make sure she was up-to-date on the latest information that could possibly be on their Graduation Exams. Joshua had been practicing a bit of non-verbal magic using his wand. Currently, he was on the Levitation Charm...and Hermione was making him use it to get down books from the higher, unreachable shelves. If he got the wrong book, he'd have to place it back where it came from and pick another book.

Practice is practice, I suppose.

As he made the final book float down to the already growing stack beside Hermione, something caused his eye to twitch and forced his attention elsewhere. Hermione must have noticed because she had her wand ready to draw.

"What's wrong," she asked him softly, walking closer to him as he looked out the lone window.

"I'm not sure, but something doesn't feel right," he said to himself. "While I agree that Snape has something against Gryffindor and Harry, something about Quirrell puts me on edge. They are both hiding something and it isn't a thin hairline."

Hermione nodded solemnly. Joshua wasn't normally a paranoid person, but when something set off an alarm in his mind, he didn't leave much to chance. Quirrell was one of those people. "Come on. I'll put the books on reserve. We should go get something to eat before heading back to Gryffindor tower."

Hermione walked over and wrapped her arms around Josh's waist, resting her head on his shoulder. "I know, Hermione," he said, shaking his head of the irritating feeling he got by looking into the forbidden forest. "Let's go. I'm starving and I've been begging to see the look on Malfoy's face after I smacked him with my guitar."

Hermione giggled before unweaving herself from Josh and leading him to the Great Hall for dinner. Upon reaching the Great Hall, they noticed the Slytherins glaring at them, though the most notable of them would have to be Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Malfoy's nose looked like it had snapped in more than one place and was nearly as crooked as Snape's own. Joshua was fighting every instinct not to laugh out loud. Even Hermione looked ready to burst into giggles. The entire Gryffindor table was celebrating their latest victory and their first time leading the house championship in seven years.

The feast was grand and the teachers had to tell some of the students to tone it down. For some reason, Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore didn't object to their celebrating. As Joshua reached out for a slice of roast, a sharp pain erupted in the back of his hand. He simply bit his lip and looked at his hand. Buried deep within was a steak knife. Hermione nearly screamed at the sight and most of the Gryffindor students were muttering amongst themselves, asking where the knife came from.

With a sigh, Joshua grabbed the handle of the knife before yanking it out with a sickening squelch before looking over at the smug-looking Slytherins and a grinning Marcus Flint sitting down and seemingly missing his own steak knife. Joshua shook his head sadly. While the wound was far from fatal, it did hurt like hell.

Why wasn't he screaming his head off if he was in such pain? He was good at hiding his body language and showing he was in pain in front of Hermione just wasn't cool.

Apparantly, Hermione could already tell because the took him by the hand and dragged him out of the Great Hall and toward the medical wing. As the Slytherin table began to laugh, four of them let out yelps of pain and found steak knives lodged in the fattest part of their butts.

Professor McGonagall replaced her wand descretely with a smirk on her face as all of Gryffindor laughed at their misfortune.

As Hermione dragged Joshua down the corridors, she kept muttering about how stupid a prank flinging a steak knife was and what could have happened if he got killed by the deadly projectile. He tried to tell her not to worry, but she ignored him. Upon arriving at the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey ushered them in. She lifted up Joshua's hand and scoffed before pulling out a red-colored potion and telling him to swallow.

He did and actually enjoyed the pleasant flavor. It tasted like...roasted strawberries mixed with vanilla ice cream. As soon as he finished drinking the potion, the wound on the back of his hand knit itself together without leaving a scar. Joshua looked over at Hermione and flashed her both sides of his injured hand, revealing flawless skin.

"See? Good as new, Hermione. You worry too much sometimes," Josh said with a chuckle.

"And you worry too little," she stated with a glare. "What if someone was trying to kill you? They could have done it and nobody would have known who it was."

"I told you before, Hermione. I can't die just yet. I've got too much stuff left to do," Josh said as he wrapped his arms around her waist. She leaned into him and gave a heavy sigh.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn," she asked him.

"Because you're so bossy," he answered. "Now come on. We've got to get back to Gryffindor tower before Filch or Snape starts roaming the halls. I'm getting tired and I wouldn't mind crashing for a bit before going back to classes tomorrow."

Hermione agreed. Today had been emotionally exhausting. Gryffindor was in first place and Joshua had been injured by a flying steak knife.

After a few minutes, Joshua and Hermione approached Gryffindor tower just in time to see Harry and Ron talking.

"Harry," Hermione squeaked, "where have you _been_?"

"We won! We won! We won," Ron shouted excitedly, thumping Harry on the back. "And Josh gave him a broken nose! Everyone's waiting for you in the common room, we're having a party, Fred and George stole some cakes and stuff from the kitchens."

"Never mind that now," Harry said as he tried to catch his breath. "Let's find an empty room, you won't believe what I have to tell you guys..."

Making sure Peeves wasn't inside before he shut the door behind them, Harry quickly began explaining what he'd seen and heard.

"So we were right, it _is_ the Sorcerer's Stone, and Snape's trying to force Quirrell to help him get it. He's asked if he knew how to get past Fluffy – and he said something about Quirrell's 'hocus pocus' – I reckon there are other things guarding the stone apart from Fluffy, load of enchantments, probably, and Quirrell would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell that Snape needs to break through -"

"So what you're telling us is that the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape," Hermione said in shock.

"It'll be gone by Tuesday," muttered Ron in a dreading tone.

"Maybe," Joshua said to himself, though the trio could clearly hear him. "I'm not sure. We may not like Snape, but don't focus solely on him. He was in the Great Hall when the troll was released. There is more to this mystery than any of us can tell. I can assure you that much."


	8. The Problem With Dragons Is

**Guardian Mage**

**Written By: Rave Rose of Twilight**

**Warning: I do not own Harry Potter. I do own that tiny El Kabong schtick I used to smack Malfoy, though. It's not that I hate Draco Malfoy or his gang. It's just that I like seeing them hurt...a lot. Okay, maybe I do hate him, but there is a good reason for that! He's a blond version of Sasuke Uchiha from the Naruto series and I so wanted to see him die a painful death the likes of which would cause the sun to explode and the cosmos we now know to exist to spontaneously combust in a hail of eternal fire and damnation. People like Sasuke are what my Boggart's appearance would be based off of...that and emos. They're just plain depressing and evil.**

Chapter Eight: The Problem With Dragons Is...

Surprisingly enough, it appeared that Quirrell didn't cave in to Snape's demands. He got a lot paler and appeared to lose a bit more weight, but Snape seemed to brood even more than usual. Every time they passed the third floor corridor, Harry, Ron, and Hermione would press their ears up against the door to see if Fluffy was still growling inside.

Harry would give Quirrell an encouraging smile whenever he passed him and Ron would tell people off for making fun of the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher's stutter.

Hermione, on the other hand, had more than the Sorcerer's Stone on her mind. She'd begun drawing up study schedules and color-coding all of her notes. Harry and Ron wouldn't have minded so much, but she kept nagging at them to do the same. Harry and Ron would look to Josh for support, but the instant he began to open his mouth, Hermione would send him a glare that would make him shut his mouth firmly and agree with her.

In truth, he felt like a whipped dog on a short leash.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away!"

"Ten weeks," Hermione snapped at Ron. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicholas Flamel."

"But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminded the hyper-inteligent girl. "Anyway, what are you two studying for, you already know it all and Josh could probably go straight to third year with all the advanced stuff he knows."

"What are we studying for? Are you insane? You realize we need to pass these exams to get into the second year? They're very important. I should have been studying months ago, I don't know what I was thinking..."

Unfortunately, the teacher's seemed to agree with Hermione. They piled on so much homework that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as fun as Christmas. It was hard to relax with Hermione in your ear reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practicing wand movements. Moaning and yawning, Harry and Ron spent most of their free time in the library with her, trying to get through all their extra work.

"I'll never remember this," Ron shouted one afternoon, throwing his quill away from him and looking longingly out the library window. It was the first really fine day they'd had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue, and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming.

Harry, who had been looking up 'Dittany' in _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_, didn't look up until he hear Ron say, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"

Hagrid walked into view, hiding something behind his back. He looked rather out of place in his mole skin overcoat.

"Jus' lookin'," he said in a tone that attracted the four young student's attention at once. "An' what're you lot up ter?" He looked at them with a suspicious eye. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicholas Flamel, are yeh?"

"Not really. We found out about him ages ago," said Josh, flipping to the next page in his Defense Against the Dark Arts book.

"_And_ we know what that dog's guarding, it's the Sorcerer's St -," said Ron before he found Josh's hand on his mouth while he continued to read.

"That may not be the best thing to say in a library full of students that may or may not be listening to our conversation, Ron."

Hagrid nodded before placing a sausage-like finger to his whiskered lips. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"

"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," said Harry as quietly as he could, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy-"

"SHHHH," Hagrid hissed. "Listen – come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed to know. They'll think I've told yeh -"

"See you later then," Harry said.

Hagrid nodded before shuffling off.

"What was he hiding behind his back," asked Hermione in a thoughtful tone.

Josh simply shook his head. "Some people have a right to keep secrets from their friends, Hermione. It's best not to throw ourselves into every little mystery thrown our way."

"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone," Harry asked as Josh's eye twitched. Did nobody respect the privacy of others?

"I'm going to see what section he was in," Ron said, who'd had enough of working. Joshua simply pulled out a set of earplugs and placed them in his ears before continuing reading. Ron came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms before slamming them on the table.

"_Dragons,_" he whispered. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: _Dragon Species of Great Brittain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide_."

Joshua yanked out his earplugs before glaring at Ron. "Why must you go out of your way to explore every little thing? Hagrid has a right to some privacy, doesn't he?"

"Hagrid's _always_ wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him," Harry said to himself.

"Why must I be surrounded by detectives," moaned Josh to himself as he finally shut his book before placing it in his robe's inner breast pocket.

"But it's against our laws," said Ron. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden – anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."

"But there aren't wild dragons in _Britain,_" asked Harry in curiocity.

"Of course there are," Ron said simply. "Common Welsh Green and Herbidean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job of hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."

"So what on earth's Hagrid up to," asked Hermione.

As Joshua rose from his seat, his mood seemed to have fallen as he followed his friends. "Sometimes, I wonder why I hang out with you three when all you seem to do is get in trouble." 

Hermione looked back at him with a small smile. "Because you're the only person that can keep us from getting in trouble." He saw the small glint in her eye that made his mood worsen.

"I hate that look, you know," he said glumly as they set off for Hagrid's hut.

"Yeah. I know," she said smugly, "but you know you love me."

"Don't remind me," he said simply. "Sometimes I wonder if it's worth all the trouble and stress you three give me."

When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut an hour later, they were surprised to see that all of the curtains were closed. Hagrid called "Who is it?" before he let them in, and then shut the door quickly behind them.

It felt like a sauna. Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made them tea and offered them stoat sandwiches, which all but Joshua refused. When Joshua devoured the sandwich in one bite, the young trio he often surrounded himself with stared in amazement and slight disgust. Hagrid just puffed out his chest and thumped it in pride.

"Really good stoat, Hagrid," Josh said as he licked his fingers. "Mom often uses it in stew, but that sandwich was outright wonderful."

"So – yeh wanted to ask me somethin'," Hagrid asked.

"Yes," Harry said. There was no point beating around the bush. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy."

Hagrid frowned.

"o' course I can't," he said plainly. "Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts – I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."

"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you _do_ know, you know everything that goes on round here," said Hermione in a warm, flattering voice. Hagrid's beard twitched and they could tell he was smiling. Josh rolled his eyes. He hated this. The three were using Hagrid's friendship with them to gather information. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

"Guys," Josh began, "we shouldn't -"

"Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that...let's see...he borrowed Fluffy from me...then some o' the teachers did enchantments...Professor Sprout – Professor Flitwick – Professor McGonagall -," he said as he ticked them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell – an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

"_Snape?_"

"Yeah – yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped _protect _the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

Harry knew Ron and Hermione were thinking the same thing that he was. If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. He probably knew everything – except, it seemed, Quirrell's spell and how to get past Fluffy.

"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid," said Harry anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"

"Not a soul knows except for me an' Dumbledore," said Hagrid proudly.

"Well, that's something," Harry muttered before wiping a bit of sweat from his brow. "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling."

"Can't, sorry, Harry," said Hagrid quickly. Harry and Josh noticed him glance at the fire. The two looked closer into it before Joshua paled, his eyes wide in fear.

"Hagrid," Josh said firmly. "What's that?"

"Ah," said Hagrid as he fiddled around with his beard. "That's – er..."

"Where did you get it, Hagrid," asked Ron, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg. "It must have cost you a fortune."

"Won it," said Hagrid, still feeling the intense gaze coming from Joshua. "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."

"I wonder _why_ he was to glad," growled Joshua before he spun around and smacked his head against the door a few times. "Okay. I'm not here. I was never here. I didn't see anything in that fire. God. Why can't my life ever be easy?"

"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched," said Hermione.

"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," said Hagrid, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library – _Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit_ – it's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here – how ter recognize diff'rent eggs – what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."

Hagrid looked rather pleased with himself, but Hermione was taking Josh's side this time.

"Hagrid, you live in a _wooden house_," she said.

Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoaked the fire.

As Joshua walked out of the hut with Hermione following closely behind him, he was muttering several things under his breath that made Hermione curious as to what his thoughts on the egg were.

"What do you think about the egg," she asked silently.

"If Hagrid's smart, he'd get rid of it," Joshua growled. "Nothing good can come from this. Not only will Hagrid get in trouble if someone found out about it, but we could also get in just as much trouble for not telling someone."

"But...Hagrid's our friend," she said sadly. Joshua shook his head.

"That won't work on me this time, Hermione," Joshua said firmly before turning around to look at Hermione directly. "Hagrid's dug himself too far into a trench. He's only got two choices. He keeps digging and hatches the egg, risks someone finding out and telling a professor or someone from the Ministry of Magic...or he gets rid of it as soon as possible and climbs out while he still can. There's no other way to go about it."

So now they had something new to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut. Joshua already stated his case and said outright that, while he wouldn't say anything about it if someone asked, he wasn't going to do anything with or around Hagrid until he got rid of the dragon.

"Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Ron sighed, as evening after evening they struggled to get through all their extra homework they were getting. Hermione had now started making study schedules for Harry and Ron, too. It was driving them insane.

Then, one breakfast time, Hedwig brought Harry another note from Hagrid. He'd written only two words: _It's hatching._

Ron wanted to skip Hebology and go straight down to the hut. Hermione and Joshua wouldn't hear of it.

"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?"

"We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing -"

"Shut up," Harry whispered harshly.

Joshua glanced around and spotted Malfoy only feet away from them and he had stopped dead in his tracks to listen. How much had he heard? Harry didn't like the look on Malfoy's face at all. Joshua liked it any less.

"El Kabong."

Malfoy flinched and moved his hand to his now repaired and 'perfect' nose before walking away quickly. Harry was about to ask Josh what that was all about, but Joshua had gotten up from his seat. "I'm going to Herbology. If you want to visit Hagrid, then do, but I've told you where I stand." He turned to Hermione. "I hope I see you in the library after class, but that's your choice."

Joshua walked away and down to the greenhouse while Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another.

Ron and Hermione were arguing the whole way to Herbology and in the end, Hermione agreed to run down to Hagrid's with the other two during the morning break. When the bell rang from the castle at the end of their lesson, the three of them dropped their trowels at once and hurried through the grounds to the edge of the forest. Hagrid greeted them, looking flushed and excited, but he noticed that Joshua was missing.

"It's nearly out," he said as he ushered them inside.

The egg was lying on the table and the deep cracks on the surface seemed to be growing deeper with every bump and shake the creature within gave off. A funny clicking noise erupted from within the skull-thick shell.

They all drew their chairs up to the table and watched with bated breath.

All of a sudden, there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped onto the table. It wasn't exactly pretty; Harry thought it looked like a crumpled, black umbrella. It's spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet-like body, it had a long snout with wide, flared-out nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes.

It sneezed and a couple of sparks flew from its snout.

"Isn't he _beautiful,_" Hagrid muttered to himself. He reached out a hand to stroak its head, but it snapped at his fingers, showing rows of pointed fangs.

"Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!"

"Hagrid," said Hermione cautiously, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"

Hagrid was about to answer when the color drained from his face in an instant – he leapt to his feet and ran to the window.

"What's the matter?"

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains – it's a kid – he's runnin' back up ter the school."

Harry bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking him.

Malfoy had seen the dragon.

Something about the smile lirking on Malfoy's face during the next week put Harry, Ron, and Hermione on edge. They spent most of their free time in Hagrid's darkened hut, trying to reason with him. Hermione, the whole time, was beating herself up for not listening to Joshua. Even Harry and Ron were considering the times Joshua had helped others out.

"Just let him go," Harry urged the giant. "Set him free."

"I can't," Hagrid said sadly. "He's too little. He'd die."

They looked at the dragon. It had grown three times in length in just a week. Smoke kept furling out of its nostrils. Hagrid hadn't been doing his gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keeping him so busy. There were empty brandy bottles and chicken feathers covering the floor in a nasty film of grime.

"I've decided to call him Norbert," the gamekeeper said, looking at the dragon with misty eyes. "He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Norbert! Where's Mommy?"

"He's lost it," muttered Ron.

"Hagrid," Harry said loudly, "give it two weeks and Norbert's going to be as long as your house. Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment."

Hagrid bit his lip, but a new voice chimed in.

"I told you, Hagrid," the voice called from the door. Everyone turned around to see Josh, standing there stoically. "I told you that having that thing in your hut was a bad idea." Hermione looked at him in horror. "Malfoy showed up in the library, hiding behind Crabbe and Goyle, when he told me that when he was done telling his father about what you four were hiding, you three would be expelled and Hagrid would be locked away for the rest of his life."

Hagrid paled and bit his lip.

"I – I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't."

"You have to, Hagrid. It's either Norbert...or a nice cell in a wizard prison."

Harry suddenly turned to Ron.

"Charlie," he said.

"You must be losing it, too," Ron said. "I'm Ron, remember?"

"No – Charlie – your brother, Charlie. In Romania. Studying dragons. We could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take care of him and then put him back in the wild!"

"Brilliant," shouted Ron. "How about it, Hagrid?"

In the end, Hagrid agreed that they would send an owl to Charlie to ask him.

The following week dragged by painfully slow for many students while others complained that it went by too quickly. Wednesday night found Hermione and Joshua sitting alone in the common room with Harry, though he was coming close to falling asleep, long after everyone else had gone to bed. The clock on the wall had just chimed midnight when the portrait hole burst open. Ron finally arrived out of nowhere as he pulled off Harry's invisibility cloak. He had been down at Hagrid's hut, helping him feed Norbert, who was now eating dead rats by the crate.

"It bit me," he said, showing his hand, which was wrapped in a bloody handkerchief. "I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. I'm telling you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit. When it bit me he told me off for scaring it. And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby."

Joshua rolled his eyes before flipping to a new page in his Potions book. "I told you so."

Harry and Ron were quickly beginning to get annoyed by the oldest male in the room. Every time they complained about the dragon, he would say "I told you so" before going back to his book or whatever material he was studying. Hermione would often take his side in the matter, though that was mostly because they were in agreement that the egg should have never been hatched in the first place.

There was a sudden tap on the dark window.

"It's Hedwig," Harry said, hurrying to let her in. "She'll have Charlie's answer!"

Joshua continued to read his book while the others gathered around the note.

Dear Ron,

How are you? Thanks for the letter – I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal dragon.

Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it's still dark.

Send me an answer as soon as possible.

Love,

Charlie

"We've got the invisibility cloak," Harry said. "It shouldn't be too difficult – I think the cloak's big enough to cover two of us and Norbert."

It was a testament to how horrible the past week had been when the other three agreed to the plan. They would agree to anything if it got rid of Norbert...and Malfoy...

….that is, until they found a small hitch in their plan. By the next morning, Ron's bitten hand had swollen to twice its usual size. He didn't know whether it was safe to go to Madam Pomfrey – would she recognize a dragon bite? By later that afternoon, it was unavoidable. The cut had turned a sickening shade of green. It appeared as though Norbert was related to some venomous snakes because the four believed his fangs to be poisonous.

"Harry and Hermione rushed up to the hospital wing at the end of the day to find Ron in a terrible state with Josh sitting in a chair at his bedside...reading an advanced Charms book.

"It's not just my hand," he whispered, "although that feels like it's about to fall off. Malfoy told Madam Pomfrey he wanted to borrow one of my books so he could come and have a good laugh...'till he saw Joshua sitting by my bed. He kept threatening to tell her what really happened to me. Joshua told her that a few drops of potion had accidentally landed in a small cut in my hand. I think she believed him. Better than me having to tell her a dog bit me."

"Potions have all kinds of nasty effects, Ron," Joshua stated in a bored tone that seemed remenicent to Snape's at the beginning of the year. "Dog bites don't turn green or ooze pus. Potions seem like a more...believable excuse to me."

"It'll all be over at midnight on Saturday," said Hermione, but that didn't soothe Ron at all. On the contrary, he sat upright as though he'd either been burned or shocked and broke into a heavy sweat.

"Midnight on Saturday," he said in a hoarse voice. "Oh no – oh no – I've just remembered – Charlie's letter was in that book Malfoy took, he's going to know we're getting rid of Norbert."

Joshua's eyes flashed over to Harry. "When you go out, make sure you have a hold of that Christmas present I gave you, Harry. I think that you'll need it Saturday night.

Harry and Hermione didn't get a chance to answer. Madam Pomfrey came over at that moment and made them leave, saying Ron needed sleep.

It was too late to change the plan. There was no time to send Charlie an owl and this was likely going to be their only chance at getting rid of the Ridgeback. The one thing Harry was thankful for...was that Malfoy didn't know about his cloak of invisibility.

Theywould have felt sorry for Hagrid when the time came for him to say good-bye to Norbert if they hadn't been so worried about what they had to do. It was a very dark, cloudy night, and they were a bit late arriving at Hagrid's hut because they'd needed to wait for Peeves to get out of their way in the entrance hall, where he'd been playing tennis against the wall...and students' heads.

Hagrid had Norbert packed and ready to go in a large crate.

"He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey," Hagrid said in a muffled tone. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."

The shreading noises and flying fluff coming from the crate made Harry sure the teddy bear was either dead...or dying a painful death.

"Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed, as Harry and Hermione covered the crate with the invisibility cloak and stepped underneath it themselves. "Mommy will never forget you!"

How in the nine levels of hell they managed to get the crate back up to the castle, they were sure they never wanted to know. Midnight ticked nearer as they heaved Norbert up the marble staircase in the entrance hall and along the darkest corridors. Up another staircase...then another – even one of Harry's shortcuts didn't make the work any easier.

"Almost there," Harry panted as they reached the corridor directly underneath the tallest tower.

Then a sudden movement ahead of them made them almost drop the crate. Forgetting that they were invisible, they shrank into the shadows, staring at the dark outlines of two people grappling with each other ten feet away. A lamp flared to life.

Harry almost laughed at the sight, but knew he had to remain silent. Still, this was a moment neither he nor Hermione were sure to forget.

Professor McGonagall, wearing a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, had Malfoy by the ear.

"Detention," she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how _dare _you -"

"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter's coming – he's got a dragon!"

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on – I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"

The steep spiral staircase up to the top of the tower seemed the easiest thing in the world after that. Harry would tell Ron all about Malfoy's encounter with Professor McGonagall after this was done. Not until they'd stepped out into the cold night air did they throw off the cloak, glad to be able to breathe properly again. Hermione did a sort of jig.

"Malfoy's got detention! I could sing!"

"Don't," Harry advised her. "At least wait until we're back at Gryffindor tower and Norbert is a thousand miles away."

Chuckling about Malfoy's predicament, they waited, Norbert thrashing about in his crate. About ten minutes later, four broomsticks came swooping down out of the darkness.

Charlie's friends were a cheery lot. They showed Harry and Hermione the harness they'd jury rigged, so they could suspend Norbert between them. They all helped buckle Norbert in safely into it and then Harry and Hermione shook hands with the others and thanked them very much.

As the old baseball announcers would say...Norbert was going...going..._gone!_

They slipped back down the spiral staircase, their hearts as light as their hands, now that Norbert was off them. No more dragon – Malfoy in detention – what could ruin their joy.

The answer to that question was waiting at the foot of the stairs. As they stepped into the corridor, Filch's face loomed suddenly out of the darkness.

"Well, well, well," he whispered with a sickening grin on his face, "we _are _in trouble."

Harry thought quickly. Reaching into his back pocket, he threw the phial filled with an ink-like substance against the ground. The ink-like substance filled the air and created a veil of inpenitrable darkness. Harry rushed upstairs and grabbed his cloak before running downstairs.

A pair of footsteps came toward them, running, it sounded like. Filch shouted around him until a hand grabbed his face. The hand was leathery, meaning the perp was wearing a glove.

"_Obliviate,_" whispered a heavy voice and a flash of gray erupted from the darkness. Harry grabbed onto Hermione's arm and placed the cloak around them...then a leather bound hand grabbed his arm from beneath the cloak and began to tug them along with them. "Follow me," the voice called to them. Their eyes were still reeling from the sudden blackout and they could barely see anything other than a pale white face and a black hoodie.

"Where are you taking us," whispered Hermione as she followed the person in front of them.

"Somewhere you'll be safe," the voice said cryptically. "Do you trust me?"

Hermione's mind paused. She'd heard that somewhere before, but right now, she just wanted to be far away from Filch. Hermione nodded, though she was still under the cloak and she doubted he could see her. His fingers, however, were on Harry's wrist and he could feel his pulse slow down a bit.

"Good." After decending a few stairways and crossing a few corridors, they were finally where they felt most at home...

….Gryffindor tower.

"Password," yawned the Fat Lady.

"Cantankerous Shrew."

The portal opened wide and the trio slipped inside. Harry and Hermione's eyes were finally getting accustomed to the light around them. They dropped the cloak to the ground as they looked up at their hero. He wore a jet black hoodie and black cargo pants. On his feet were the darkest boots they'd ever seen, but the thing they noticed the easiest...was the pale white mask with slitted eye sockets.

"Who are you," Hermione asked. The figure chuckled before bowing at the waist with his left arm extended to his side.

"Excuse my manners," he said. "Allow me to introduce myself." As the figure reached a leathery hand to his mask, he could tell that they were waiting with baited breath. He grasped the front of his mask before removing it in one fell swoop.

Harry was in shock while Hermione dropped to her knees. Now she knew where she'd heard that phrase before.

Standing before them...was Joshua Kingsford.

"Well, I would...if you didn't know who I am already."


End file.
